If Robert Abela is reaching the conclusion that the country is ready to live without Covid-19, he should have some scientific basis to back that decision up. I’m sorry but it is a cop-out to now say the science is too flimsy. The science and the mathematics were extremely compelling when our children were ordered [...]
Why did it have to be the prime minister to deny Charmaine Gauci quit? This feels like an involuntary confirmation. I had been hearing from different sources since Friday that Charmaine Gauci could no longer stomach the fact that she was being used as a prop by Robert Abela to certify advice she was not [...]
Moron Alex Agius Saliba did some rainbow flag wrapping on a European Parliament’s online magazine carving out the empathic ventricle in his heart and speaking about the need to protect young gay people because we live “in a society that places increasing pressure on all of us”. He says that we should prioritise everyone’s mental [...]
The indomitable BugM said this was the strongest case yet for abolishing party-owned media. A 1:50 clip presenting a compelling argument in favour of the immediate shutting down of political tv stations in Malta. pic.twitter.com/gIMNmIG7sw — BugM (@bugdavem) May 20, 2020 And of course, he has a point. Political parties should not be allowed anywhere [...]
Activist Xandru Cassar asked like minded people to join him near Parliament at 7pm this evening and leave candles near the entrance of Parliament as a symbol of protest at the treatment of asylum seekers by Maltese authorities. Since the onset of coronavirus the government has refused to fulfil its international obligations of saving lives [...]
The prime minister, the interior minister and the chief of the army were served today with a judicial protest filed by lawyers acting for relatives of two of the 12 people reported to have died waiting for rescue on a migrants’ dinghy in distress in Maltese waters during the Easter week. The brother and the [...]
Free speech NGOs have filed recommendations today on action the EU can take to reduce the risk of SLAPP suits against journalists working in the European Union. The recommendations are backed up by legal advice prepared by Maltese lawyer Justin Borg Barthet who lectures in the University of Aberdeen. The NGOs recommended a change to [...]
Photo: Avvenire Photos and videos published today by Avvenire and The Guardian show military operations conducted by the Armed Forces within sight of Malta’s coast where migrants were allegedly threatened and forced out of Maltese waters and put on a route to Sicily. The press reports quote multiple sources say that AFM soldiers [...]
Malta features on Italy’s Il Foglio today under the headline “L’Isola dei Sovranisti”. ‘Sovranismo’ is a political term normally used to describe far right politicians that argue for the autonomous self-reliance of states and for countries to act in their own interest without regard to international law or cooperation. It is used for the policies [...]
In spite of the concerns expressed in this report, Repubblika wishes to make it abundantly clear that we are desirous of reform. We warn, however, that a reform is only welcome if it can promise solutions to the challenges we have today of an elected tyranny which exists above the law. This is why any [...]
The government’s silence on this matter appears to be motivated by changes it has recently introduced to the manner of appointing the Police Commissioner. The government appears to expect no one to notice the elements of the recommendations made by the Commission that have been left out in the changes that are currently being implemented. [...]
Unlike its reaction to the Commission’s recommendations with respect to the President, the government provides absolutely no reaction to the Commission’s recommendations with respect to Parliament, and does not undertake to review the matter as part of a discussion on constitutional reform. Although this highly complex issue should indeed be dealt with as part of [...]
We do not believe it is accidental that the government has ignored this consideration. Indeed, what the Commission describes as a danger, i.e. the risk of parallel jurisdiction, is from the point of view of the government, a desirable confusion. These specialised tribunals are an opportunity to dispense with the basic guarantees given by the [...]
23. When the courts find that a particular law has breached a person’s fundamental rights, it does so in the context of the facts in the case before it. The same law, in a different context, may not necessarily be in breach of anyone’s fundamental rights. However, it is clear to us that while some [...]
22. As explained elsewhere in this document, the government’s decision to postpone its response on the Commission’s recommendations in this regard, renders their acceptance of other recommendations, that bestow the President with executive authority, a very dangerous development. We register our deep concern that if the powers of the President are increased, whilst the Prime [...]
It is our view that the present system of appointment of persons of trust goes against the provisions of the constitution. There should certainly be room for appointing a limited number of collaborators inside ministerial secretariats, who may owe their position to the trust the Minister has in them. But we do not believe there [...]
The civil service has been progressively weakened by the system of short-term appointments to headship positions and the creaming off of certain positions to foundations, corporations and agencies. The Principal Permanent Secretary (PPS) has, ever since the post was created, exercised powers that can only be reined in by a sufficiently powerful and independent Public [...]
16. Replacing the power of the Prime Minister to appoint persons in high office by transferring that power to “the government” is a purely cosmetic development. The fact the government agrees with this, rather confirms this view. The government is, probably correctly, equating the Commission’s meaning of the term “the government” with “the Cabinet of [...]
13. Elevating the legal basis for the Ombudsman to the constitution is ‘a welcome step’. But the government in no way responds to the correct observation made by the Commission that “requests for information (from the Ombudsman to the government) are frequently not complied with” (our emphasis). Nothing in the changes proposed by the government [...]
The April 2019 Fifth Evaluation Round of Greco (GrecoEval5Rep(2018)6) points out that in its history, the PCAC has reported on over 400 cases. It is known only to have reached the conclusion that criminal action should follow in one case alone. That was around 2 years ago and the case concerned a former Secretary General [...]