While you read in today's Sunday Times about the arrest of the chief tax-man over a 2014 conversation with Yorgen Fenech about a VAT return, and the mystery of why the police are not asking the inquiring magistrate to order the investigation of his mobile phone, waiting instead for the elusive permission from the prime [...]
This is Clint Camilleri, a government minister, seen here on national television well within the recommended two metres of space around people he does not live with. The woman in the picture is a resident of a Gozo residential area and like dozens of others in her neighbourhood, she put a solar panel on her [...]
I mean really, what the fuck is this? This piece of misguided cinematic-trailer-style propaganda porn is so bombastic it totters uncomfortably on the line between the grotesquely superficial and the plain ridiculous. It announces, like the glorious spurts out of Moby Dick's blowhole, that the covid-19 vaccine is coming to Malta. The advert speaks of [...]
The Times ran an editorial this morning headlined "the yardstick in public life". The leader was commenting on Robert Abela's new habit of shelving decisions when his ministers get into trouble. Robert Abela said he preferred to wait for an appeal from a decision on a libel case to which Ian Borg is not a [...]
Can the prime minister muster enough self-respect to avoid lending the name of his constitutional office to the PR campaigns of his former clients? It just looks so bloody crass. Here's Robert Abela on a tour of the Alberta Group facilities, restraining himself from stabbing his own throat to kill the boredom. Alberta speak as [...]
Frank Hornig for German news magazine Spiegel published this article headlined "The billion-dollar business with the golden passports". Here's a link to the original piece. For his article, Hornig interviewed me in view of my reporting on Malta's passport scheme: "When Manuel Delia wanted to visit his new fellow citizens in Malta, he experienced one [...]
Can we at least agree on the targets here? Few would disagree that our justice system is in a desperate need for reform. Trying to argue that the problems we have, are created by the Labour Party is childish and silly. And for the Labour government to wash its hands of the problem because they [...]
So Rosianne Cutajar conducted private business while serving as a quasi-minister, breaching her conduct rules. That's a dismissible offence. She took payments in tens of thousands of euro in cash. That's a dismissible offence. She used her official car and driver for private business. That's a dismissible offence. She did not disclose her income in [...]
In bookshops tomorrow Justice for Daphne is Justice for Your Right to Know, a book curated by Repubblika president-elect and #occupyjustice activist Alessandra Dee Crespo. The book pays tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia and records in paintings, poems, photographs and cartoons the rise of Malta's civil society demanding justice, that remains elusive. Buy it from the [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The government never minded having senior government officials indulge in a bit of critic-bashing that would be popular with the rank and file. "Consider Tony Zarb, paid advisor on Konrad Mizzi’s staff, calling Occupy Justice activists whores more fitting in Strait Street than Castille Place. Consider Jason [...]
It is with pride and gratitude that my co-authors, John Sweeney and Carlo Bonini, and I receive tonight the National Book Prize for literary non-fiction awarded by Malta's National Book Council. Murder on the Malta Express: Who Killed Daphne Caruana Galizia was first published in Malta by Midsea Books and was then released worldwide by [...]
"Ittraħbar" is circulated to civil servants with news from the principal permanent secretary's office. The name of the publication is a literal riff on 'newsletter'. Geddit? My daughter would palm her face round about now. So the newsletter is all of 8 full-colour pages. And apart from the fact that Mario Cutajar is the cover [...]
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A socially-distanced vigil is being broadcast right now from Great Siege Square in Valletta marking 38 months since the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Proceedings opened with a brief speech by Repubblika's president, Robert Aquilina, and a stark warning to Prime Minister Robert Abela. Robert Aquilina said that as was expected, the NGO did not [...]
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Manuel Delia · Robert Abela is a self-fulfilling prophecy When Robert Abela’s predecessor lost all control of circumstances and authority over events, he signed the document he had been rejecting for two years: setting up an inquiry to determine whether the state, including of course the government he had been leading, was at least in [...]
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) has condemned today’s court ruling in the criminal proceedings against Neville Gafà for threats he made on Twitter against Italian journalist Nello Scavo. “We take note of this verdict,” commented Scavo. “This case has given me an [...]