The editorial of The Sunday Times is impatient with Robert Abela's mixed messages about good governance. The impatience is raised today after Abela said 'he saw no reason' for dismissing Owen Bonnici after the court found the minister breached fundamental human rights of protesters. "Has Abela not learnt the most valuable lesson to come out [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "This was never about the flowers per se. This was not a dispute over a garden centre. This was about the attempt to suppress a protest intended to pressure the institutions to reach and punish the criminals, including those operating within the structures of the State, that [...]
The parliamentary chamber has a viewing gallery for “strangers”, that’s you and me who have not been elected to a seat in the legislative body of the land. Parliament’s rules say people who are not members of parliament have no place in the areas reserved for members and staff. The area reserved for non-members is [...]
I issued this statement to the press after watching these comments Owen Bonnici gave to journalists. This link takes you to the Times of Malta report. In comments to journalists Owen Bonnici said today he was “always within the law” in respect of the protest site in front of the court building in Valletta. He [...]
Today’s court decision finds my fundamental rights were breached. But that’s just a legal nicety. The court effectively found the rights of Daphne’s family were breached. Yet another way in which the state repaid them for the sacrifice of their mother, wife, sister and daughter. It found the rights of all activists and protesters were [...]
The Constitutional Court today charged Owen Bonnici with using the Great Siege Memorial "as an instrument of division". This is especially significant and needs specific remarks. Owen Bonnici's arguments in his own defence in his case were that the memorial needed to be restored and cleaned up every day because of the damage he alleged [...]
Owen Bonnici was not just found to have breached my fundamental human rights on 15 September 2018. He was found to have breached the fundamental human right to free expression of Daphne's sons and sisters and parents, the right of protesters in groups or as individuals every time they came to Valletta and left [...]
The Constitutional Court today ruled in the case I filed in September 2018 against Minister Owen Bonnici finding that the minister breached my fundamental human right to free expression when he ordered the removal of flowers, candles and messages of protest that were part of the campaign for truth and justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia. [...]
https://youtu.be/uSTPyiqN1_w
https://youtu.be/iLwsABrjmp4
https://youtu.be/Uyn39B5TyG4
Photos by Jon Borg.
Photos by Robert Agius.
Photos by Darrin Zammit Lupi.
It is out of place for the prime minister of a democratic government to say when it is appropriate for a protest to occur and when it isn’t. This is really the crux of an important battle that has been fought here for some time and which shows no sign of abating. It is a [...]
Updated 29 January 2020 14:08 Adds another comment thread on Facebook in reaction to the below. I rarely, almost never participate in Facebook chats. Most are littered with trolls and almost no one who participates in these discussions is open to persuasion. I would have entered into this particular discussion but the settings it is on, [...]
The protests of November and December 2019 were the biggest and most sustained public political manifestations not called by either major political party in living memory. They were also the most successful. They achieved aims broadly thought impossible just a few weeks before including the resignation of Joseph Muscat from the office he least wanted [...]
Julia Farrugia Portelli issued a statement saying she ordered the tourism authority (that reports to her) to cancel a fat and utterly pointless consultancy contract it entered into with her predecessor Konrad Mizzi, who resigned in disgrace. Is that it? We’re supposed to be ok now? This is like a thief in black leggings and [...]
Comments made to the press this morning by MEP Roberta Metsola, after asking some tough questions of prime minister Robert Abela in Brussels, suggest that Joseph Muscat flew to Dubai last December to sign up on some sort of retainer with the Dubai emirate or one of its senior agencies. When asked if he knew [...]
