The government needs to do more than fire the Film Commissioner. That is what an association of local film producers asked the government to do but that request does not address the suspicion that former Labour Party employee Johann Grech was narrowing the field of suppliers in Malta in order to profit directly from the [...]
After the piss poor performance by the prime minister’s staffers, there is now a frantic scramble to discredit the public inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Prominently there’s Alfred Sant’s Facebook post that works on the principle that ridicule is the best way to undermine any process that relies on seriousness, procedure and [...]
This post follows up from yesterday’s post on “the ‘umble Robert Abela”. So, what are we to expect? Undoubtedly, more of the same. We have seen the shameful humbuggery at the public enquiry of insolent quacks or so called “persons of trust”. These puny individuals strut around Al Capone style. They think they are accountable [...]
Sent in by a visitor to Malta who left shocked by what she saw and heard. Sell the country I was a likely labour lad. Not too good and not too bad. Not too dim and not too smart. Just the one to play the part. In politics I made my way Every dog must [...]
Your right to know what’s being done with your economy depends on journalists scrutinising people who are licensed to operate banks here. Support journalism and support the fight against libel tourism and SLAPP lawsuits designed to prevent you from making informed choices for your wellbeing. SLAPP lawsuits like the one the owner of Satabank filed [...]
This photo was taken in Valletta yesterday afternoon during carnival. In an earlier post I showed photos of the state the Daphne protest was found in this morning. Meanwhile, at around the same time, in Nadur yesterday:
Sent in by someone known to me: “I suppose you are quite a great lawyer?” I said, after looking at him for some time. “Me, Master Copperfield? Oh no! I’m a very ‘umble person. I am well aware that I am the ‘umblest person going,” said Uriah Heep modestly. “Let the other be where he [...]
Activists found the Daphne Caruana Galizia protest memorial in Valletta in this state this morning. They have cared for it everyday since a court decision to condemn the government for breaching fundamental human rights for "cleaning" the memorial every day. In that decision the court said the government through Minister Owen Bonnici made the memorial [...]
Veteran Italian journalist Sandro Ruotolo was elected last night to the Italian Senate replacing the former Senator for the Naples constituency Franco Ortolani who had died in office. Sandro Ruotolo contested the election on his own ticket “Napoli con Ruotolo” but was backed by the centre-left parties Partito Democratico and the Movimento Democrazia e Autonomia. [...]
Christo Georgiev, Bulgarian owner of the Maltese Satabank, has filed a SLAPP suit in a court in Bulgaria for monetary compensation for damages he alleges he suffered as a result of a blog post published on this website. The blog post published in October 2018 was headlined “Satabank: And how I let them bully me [...]
Some details from the controversial Malta carnival float featuring an effigy of the archbishop. The makers appear to have taken Charles Scicluna's hint about what should have been expected on a carnival float this year. Photos taken today.
Glenn Bedingfield took the stand today at the inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Even after two years of universal condemnation, of films, books, articles and documentaries carrying an objective interpretation of what has happened in Malta over the years leading to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s killing and of what happened since, of visiting [...]
Filed by Spartacus. In 1977, Dr Eddie Fenech Adami was elected as leader of the Nationalist Party. Some time later, at a rally held at the Plaza cinema in Sliema, Dr Fenech Adami delivered his first public speech. In this speech he expressed the danger that was looming then: the merging of the GWU with [...]
I filed a judicial protest in court today against minister Byron Camilleri and three of his officials: the prisons director, the director for detention centres and the principal immigration officer. I claimed that their rejection of my request to visit detention centres and the prison is an abuse of human rights. Of course, we’re not [...]
Neville Gafà’s testimony this week at the inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia contradicts statements made in 2018 by then Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela. One of them is lying. We need the government to tell us who. This week Neville Gafà said he held a diplomatic passport. He said he represented Malta in [...]
The government still needs to come clean about Neville Gafà Yesterday’s testimony at the inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia opens up fresh questions which the government must answer. For the first time ever Neville Gafà gave what he claimed was a sincere account of his function in government, at least over the [...]
The president of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio told this website that “no formal advice was yet sought or provided” with regards to the changes to the law currently being debated in Parliament on the manner of appointing the police chief. Gianni Buquicchio told this website that Byron Camilleri’s Ministry only sought “informal consultations”. This [...]
Judge Joseph Said Pullicino’s questioning of witnesses in the public inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia is incisive. There are few pleasures in this experience. But watching people like Nigel Vella and Matthew Carbone squirm under the pressure of his deceptively gentle questions is a considerable compensation for the dread and [...]
It is truly worrying to see Robert Abela’s government adopt the methods of its predecessor. One such habit was Owen Bonnici’s classic pivot of saying that the reforms he proposed were “approved by the Venice Commission”. That’s when they had not at all been approved by the Venice Commission. Byron Camilleri in parliament yesterday claimed [...]
A few days ago, I titled a post about corruption within the police force as Serpico. I sort of left that word hanging there. I admit it was a bit of an indulgence. Someone in the comments board thought it was a corruption on the Maltese for snake or snakes. Some background. Francesco Vincent Serpico [...]