L’ESPRESSO. Padani offshore: The Malta connection for Italian politics and money
Today's L'Espresso carries a report on conflicts of interests of politicians of the Lega Nord, the third largest party in Italy. The story refers to Italian investment in Malta's insurer Global Capital plc that raised 15 million euro of funding in 2016 from a rights issue that year. Twenty per cent of that funding was [...]
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Muscat’s brave face
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The Prime Minister cheated everyone into thinking he was being transparent when he appointed an inquiry into the allegation he received bribes into a bank account of a secret company set up in Panama in his wife’s name. But the inquiry’s remit is extremely carefully defined and [...]
THE SUNDAY TIMES: #occupyjustice 6 months on
From an #occupyjustice article in The Sunday Times today: "Where are you now that she is dead? What is keeping you at home? Have you succumbed to the intimidation? Are you scared to attend peaceful protests for fear of reprisals? Or have you retreated to your bubble, lulled into a false sense of security? (...) [...]
Bedingfield and Farrugia handed over to journalists manipulated Caruana Galizia document
Prime minister’s staffers Glenn Bedingfield and Kurt Farrugia manipulated a document drawn up by the Caruana Galizia family and passed it on to Swiss journalists (in a doctored version) as if it was a government dossier. Read details of the incident on this The Shift News story. The Shift News worked with Swiss Republik journalists [...]
LISTEN: 6 months later (BBC Newshour)
This is an update BBC Newshour on the World Service broadcast this weekend 6 months from Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination. It carries an extract of an interview Daphne's colleague at The Malta Independent Rachel Attard had given the BBC hours after her death. And a short interview with me particularly on the significance of the [...]
Daphne’s sister at Journalism Festival: “a 100 people should be doing her work; impossible to kill them all”
Corinne Vella, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister, participated in a discussion at the Perugia International Journalism Festival in a session dedicated to her sister and to slain Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak. At the meeting Corinne is reported to have said “No one take over (Daphne’s) blog. Instead 20, a hundred, should be doing that work. That [...]
WATCH: Discussion in Perugia after first screening of “Daphne”
This is the stage discussion (in Italian) with Jason Azzopardi and film-makers Carl Bonini and Giuliano Foschini that followed the screening of the La Repubblica film "Daphne" shown this Friday at the International Journalism festival in Perugia. https://youtu.be/jmdBhvu0qhU The film will be screened next in Malta on Saturday 21st at the University of Malta. Tickets [...]
Maria Efimova: ‘The American indictment of Ali Sadr is sound’
Fr Joe Borg and myself interviewed Maria Efimova earlier today on RTK, the first interview she gave since her release from Greek custody after Malta's request for her extradition was refused. Here's the full interview.
Daphne Caruana Galizia awarded Premio Civitas 2018
ANDE, the non-partisan national Italian association which promotes active citizenship, social justice and political education, has awarded Premio Civitas 2018 to Daphne Caruana Galizia. The award citation says: “Daphne Caruana Galizia, European journalist in the service of the international community, forever an icon of truth and freedom knowing of the grave risks, who worked alone [...]
Daphne, The Execution of (Trailer)
https://youtu.be/2SIUgzpNtj0
Decision to refuse extradition of Maria Efimova appealed
Reuters report that a Greek prosecutor appealed on Friday against the rejection of a Maltese request to extradite Maria Efimova, the whistle-blower who was one of the sources of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The appeal follows a court ruling on Thursday against extraditing Efimova to Malta. That court ordered Maria Efimova's release. Following the prosecutor's appeal, Greece's [...]
Republik: Joseph Muscat is a European problem.
Swiss online publication Republik closed today its trilogy on Malta in the aftermath of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The first two pieces were linked here. A loose translation of an extract from its conclusion: "Our research could not clarify who killed her. Many said they had proof, but nobody had any. "What is clear, [...]
La Repubblica: Malta, the island of impunity. Here’s who wants to cloud the truth on Daphne
La Repubblica runs a double-page spread today by Carlo Bonini and Giuliano Foschini that is introduced on the newspaper's front page with the heading "This is how Malta destroys even the ghost of Daphne in order to cloud the truth". The report speaks of the frequent and repeated destruction of the memorial to Daphne in [...]
GUEST POST: Alpha Librae
I received this note from the author of the verses beneath: "These are some thoughts which I have jotted down whilst I have been thinking about Daphne’s 6th month anniversary. I live abroad but I know exactly where I was when the perpetual night fell on our country. The piece is called Alpha Librae, as [...]
CONFIRMED: Ali Sadr and Pilatus Bank currently investigated in Malta for money laundering
Papers filed in a US Federal court confirm Ali Sadr’s activities at Pilatus Bank have been investigated by US authorities and form part of their case against him. The US Attorney also informed the US court Ali Sadr is under separate investigation for money laundering in Malta. In a statement in response to Ali Sadr’s [...]
“Malta’s whitewashed tombs”: poet laureate of other European Capital of Culture
This year Leeuwarden and Valetta are joint European Capitals of Culture. Leeuwarden is the regional capital of Frisia, which has its own language, Frisian, the second official language in the Netherlands. They have a poet laureate in Frisia. He has to write 6 to 10 poems a year. His name is Eeltsje Hettinga. He chose to [...]
International free speech organisations concerned about Malta
Article 19, English PEN, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, International Press Institute, PEN International and Reporters without Borders released today a review of press freedom and free speech in Malta. When Malta was last reviewed for these issues before 2013 there had been no adverse comments. But the report finds that "since [...]
Matthew, Andrew and Paul Caruana Galizia on Greek refusal to extradite Maria Efimova
The following is a statement by Matthew, Andrew and Paul Caruana Galizia: Today's decision of the court in Athens to reject Malta’s request for Maria Efimova’s extradition and to release her from custody is welcome news. But it is an indictment of Malta’s collapsing rule of law and its government's drive to persecute rather than [...]
Don’t expect them to give up
It would be naïve in the extreme to think that Maria Efimova’s tormentors will give up now. Today’s decision in Greece slows them down but she’s nowhere near out of the woods. Think about it. The brutal elimination of Daphne Caruana Galizia did not stop her sons’ torment, or her husband’s. No opportunity is lost [...]