Yesterday the government confirmed the opposition's nomination of John Rizzo to the Commission against Corruption. Before that happened I commented that though the candidate was eminently qualified, his nomination may have been outside the intentions of the law. To be fair I was rather more categorical than that suggesting that my reading of the law, [...]
Correction (17/01/2018 09:30). The below report states that MSP James Dornan spoke at the London event. In fact he issued a statement from his Scotland office. The error is regretted. Reporters Without Borders, English PEN, the Committee to Protect Journalists, ARTICLE 19 and Index on Censorship met in front of Malta's High Commission in London to demand [...]
The extent of the VGH scandal is so massive that it has reached the point where the implications are almost ungraspable. There’s a point where things go beyond the understanding of daily lives. When someone does not hope to earn more than 700,000 euro their entire working life, the difference between 10 million and a [...]
In a tweet last night Socialist MEP Ana Gomes who led the European Parliament delegation to Malta investigating rule of law compared Joseph Muscat with Hungary's Victor Orban and stated unlike the EPP who protects Orban as a member of the family, European Socialists should stop protecting Joseph Muscat. That is also, unfortunately, my own [...]
The following is an #occupyjustice press statement in view of their action three months from the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Three months to the day of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, #occupyjustice dressed up the main monuments dotting the island – including the statues of Dom Mintoff, Guido de Marco and Sir [...]
My interview with Maria Efimova continues here. Listen to Part 1 here. Listen to Part 2 here. Part 3: Transcript: MD: OK, so you know, this is interesting also because Daphne Caruana Galizia is no longer with us, so many people wonder ME: Unfortunately MD: Unfortunately, so we go through that as well, [...]
Labour is leading a campaign of spinning my interview with Maria Efimova. Facts are irrelevant to them. Instead they seek every opportunity to discredit those who can realistically harm their divine emperor. I will let the interview speak for itself and the facts speak for themselves. A woman who has nothing to gain steps up [...]
Much was made of some of the stories Daphne Caruana Galizia covered because to her critics they sounded salacious and beneath the dignity of their prudish eyes. Frankly Owen Bonnici's life choices are his business except when they aren't anymore. His relationship with Super One's Janice Bartolo was of interest not because we want to [...]
The Leader of the Opposition made two nominations for people to sit on legal bodies that are required by law to include nominees of the Parliamentary minority. Adrian Delia nominated John Rizzo to the Corruption Commission and Janice Chetcuti to the Resources and Environment Authority. I will not go into the merits of the choices [...]
Joseph Muscat warned Air Malta pilots yesterday he will not be held to ransom. They know his plan and he made sure they knew in the way cold war nuclear powers warned each other of assured retaliatory destruction. Except that Joseph Muscat’s plan is not retaliatory. He got Konrad Mizzi, that rather less artful dodger [...]
On Tuesday 16th, it will be 3 months since Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated. We are nowhere near knowing who ordered her killing. Justice remains denied. My wife and I plan to lay fresh flowers and spend some minutes of reflection at the improvised memorial to Daphne at the feet of the Great Siege Memorial [...]
By resident guest George Farrugia Calleja: The end / beginning of the year brings about the obligation to attend festivities usually over-populated by grey men in similarly shaded suits. Being of an ascetic disposition, I don’t indulge, preferring the company of friends to the enforced jollity of “il-kumplament” or “is-sena t-tajba”. The Great And Good [...]
Here is the second part of the detailed interview I conducted with Pilatus whistleblower Maria Efimova. Labour has been putting a spin on a phrase in the European Parliament report in Malta that said that Efimova "indicated she was not the original source" for Daphne Caruana Galizia's reporting on the Egrant case. Leave aside for [...]
See this report by La Repubblica on the Russian oligarchs that can now travel and move their money freely in Europe by pretending to be Maltese. The world's interest into Malta's way of doing things the last few years is not going to go away. We can no longer speak of the risk to Malta's [...]
Maria Efimova is a Russian woman who lived in Malta for a few months between 2016 and 2017. She worked briefly at Pilatus Bank between January and March. She says she was employedthere. Her employer says she was an intern. While there she came across what she believed were suspicious financial transactions by politically exposed [...]
I went to the Comedy Knights in Sliema today. I had been a previous year and enjoyed it. I warn you I’m not a theatre critic. There was a judge in the US who famously assured his court that he would find it difficult to define pornography; but that he’d know it when he’d see [...]
As employees of Air Malta slowly realise their chances of being in employment in Easter will be slimmer if by then the government manages to strip the national airline of its asset base, no opportunity is missed by Joseph Muscat to award one of his cronies an iced bun. Newsbook reports Sandro Craus, the prime [...]
Vitals Global Healthcare, that according to Minister Konrad Mizzi no longer owns three of our hospitals and according to itself is still considering whether to sell them, has today issued a warning to its employees: 'Do not speak to the press. If the press speak to you, everything goes to head office. Do not answer [...]
The European Parliament's mission's interim report, available here (1143312EN), and summarised painstakingly by The Times here is not a victory for anyone. It is a formalised humiliation; a collective indictment charging us for not knowing how to run our own affairs, for needing outsiders like those nasty royal commissions the British used to send here to [...]
This is such a weird country. Within the same news cycle when the civil rights minister waxes melodramatic in parliament about a junior ombudsman stepping out of line, Tony Zarb warns international journalists to look away from Malta and brands anyone speaking to them – yours truly included – traitors. And to top it all [...]