Here’s Johnny

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2020-06-09T18:42:54+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 18:29|

Net TV published a photo of Konrad Mizzi stepping out of Malta International Airport. He could have had the polite self-respect of giving Angelo Gafà the time to have his nomination as police chief confirmed before flying in. Konrad Mizzi has been presenting medical certificates saying he was unfit to fly from the UK to [...]

It’s a party in prison, but keep it secret.

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2020-06-09T18:19:14+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 18:19|

Prison authorities are clamping down on leaks as a Newsbook report said that lockdown on prison grounds featured BBQs, parties and war-field style R&R that included illegal fireworks. This website has also seen photographs of prison staff consuming alcohol in parties on the prison grounds hosted by the prison director Alexander Dalli. The photos are [...]

It’s time to step up again

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2020-06-09T16:46:16+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 16:46|

It's not that we meant to sit on our laurels after Joseph Muscat resigned. But however sceptical we all intuitively felt, many people still thought Robert Abela deserved a chance to fulfil his promise of ensuring there's no impunity. Of course words come easy. His predecessor said he would leave no stone unturned even as [...]

The government breaks laws, and we pay

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2020-06-09T16:23:13+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 16:23|

Now that the Captain Morgan prisoners are on shore we can, for a moment, think a bit of our own sufferings. Just for a short while, mind you. Robert Abela has threatened to “fast track” asylum applications of these migrants. This does not mean they get to use the business lounge and skip the queue [...]

Repubblika say ‘not enough to suspend Lawrence Cutajar’. Byron Camilleri should resign for making him consultant.

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2020-06-09T15:37:04+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 15:35|

Activists from Repubblika gathered this afternoon outside Minister Byron Camilleri’s office demanding the Home Minister’s resignation. In a letter to the Minister handed in by Repubblika President Vicki Ann Cremona said Repubblika has had enough of discovering more scandals. “We are nearing a situation where we won’t have enough officials to investigate their colleague’s filth. [...]

Malta’s passports lawyer found guilty of conflict of interest

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2020-06-09T12:01:31+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 12:01|

A Dutch government investigation has found that the lawyer Malta’s government hired to convince the European Commission it was ok to sell its passports to people who never come here broke his university rules by not reporting his work for Malta. Dimitry Kochenov featured in a Dutch TV investigation last September which started the investigation [...]

MEPs to Satabank owner: ‘Press freedom non-negotiable’; ‘We’re watching SLAPP against Manuel Delia and Times of Malta’

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2020-06-09T10:58:28+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 10:58|

MEPs in the European Parliament's Media Working Group wrote today to Christo Georgiev, owner of Malta's Satabank, now out of business, to warn him they are monitoring his SLAPP suits filed against this website and Times of Malta on reports into his business in Malta. "We have learnt that Satabank had been forced to cancel [...]

Wine and pizza

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2020-06-09T09:00:09+02:00Tue, 9th Jun '20, 09:00|

Remember all the talk about the world changing after Covid-19, that nothing will be the same again, that businesses that fail to restructure risk falling behind? Remember the comparison with the 1929 crash when giant businesses of the turn of the century shrivelled into husks? Remember the analogy of the oil crisis of the 1970s [...]

Il-Kbir ta’ Ħal Luqa

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2020-06-08T21:10:13+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 17:46|

Byron Camilleri fired Lawrence Cutajar after we learnt that “il-kbir ta’ Ħal Luqa”, as Melvyn Theuma described him in court today, provided a traffic-fine cancelling service from his desk at police headquarters while undermining his investigative officers by warning criminals to expect their imminent arrest. Lawrence Cutajar had his resignation as police chief accepted by [...]

Take a bow

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2020-06-08T15:54:14+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 15:51|

The usual bullies are all over Facebook warning people not to even dare to think about fresh protests in Valletta. The fascists are unhappy activists called people to join them in Valletta to remember Lassana Cisse, our own black man killed by trigger happy uniformed officers. We’re still waiting for justice for Lassana and the [...]

Plus ça change

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2020-06-08T13:32:29+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 13:32|

The process of choosing a new Police Commissioner is now more complicated than it used to be. But it is no less predictable. The choice of Angelo Gafà was a given even with the side-shows of a wife-beating ex-policeman who resigned in disgraced just a few months ago thrown in. This is a country for [...]

Malta and four other countries ask EU for burden sharing and centrally-managed repatriations

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2020-06-08T10:19:02+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 10:19|

Malta and four other Mediterranean countries have asked the EU to take care of the redistribution of asylum seekers and to manage directly repatriation of migrants to their country of origin. The request was revealed by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera this morning that said that Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta wrote a letter [...]

GUEST POST: Ask no questions and hear no lies

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2020-06-08T09:48:42+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 09:48|

Chris Cardona has earlier this week been interviewed by Ivan Martin of The Times. I do not know if he paid for the interview as it is clear that the newspaper is trying to give the corrupt Deputy Leader of the Labour Party a helping hand. Now if there is a person in Malta who [...]

GUEST POST: From the armchair

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2020-06-08T09:31:18+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 09:31|

The American Press Institute says that the purpose of journalism is to provide citizens (readers) with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and – the most relevant to Malta, in the context of this article – their governments. Lately journalists seem to feel under [...]

Pilatus: The question of justice

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2020-06-08T08:40:57+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 08:40|

US-based banking analyst and blogger Kenneth Rijock singled out Pilatus non-executive director Armin Eckermann and remarks Rijock says Eckermann made publicly that suggest that the Malta-based German non-executive director of Pilatus is confident Maltese authorities will never seek to get to the bottom of what happened at Pilatus Bank. Kenneth Rijock's full article is linked [...]

What did you expect?

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2020-06-08T08:15:42+02:00Mon, 8th Jun '20, 08:15|

Anġlu Farrugia held a grudge for 6 months. He waited until Saturday to use a public event to reprimand protesters who last December shouted loud enough outside his penthouse office at the entrance to Valletta to force Joseph Muscat out of office. He complained about eggs being thrown. Eggs, mind you. Not Molotov cocktails or [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Just like vermin control

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2020-06-07T08:25:43+02:00Sun, 7th Jun '20, 08:25|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Omar, Mogos, Hzqiel, Hdru, Huruy, Teklay, Nohom, Kidus, Debesay, and three men named Filmon all died of thirst, starvation or drowning in Maltese waters. "Eleven of the men were Christians. Survivors identified “their brother Omar” as Muslim. They were aged 18 to 25. Some of them had [...]

Government gives in and allows migrants penned at sea to come ashore. Hostage situation ended.

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2020-06-06T21:53:40+02:00Sat, 6th Jun '20, 21:42|

A statement announced this evening the Maltese government was not willing to endanger the lives of crew members and Maltese employees working with migrants it ordered imprisoned outside Malta’s territorial waters. For this reason, Robert Abela’s government has climbed down from its insistence that more than 400 migrants would not be allowed to land on [...]

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