M6: Malta, jewel of the Mediterranean and paradise of corruption

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2019-09-23T12:17:25+02:00Mon, 23rd Sep '19, 12:17|

Do watch this documentary broadcast last night by French channel M6. Its transmission can't be the last you've heard of it. It's exactly what you're used to watch: a beautiful island known heretofore as a tourism destination but under the shiny sheen of the promotional videos a country uglified by corruption, violence, collusion and crime. [...]

He’s confident

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2019-09-22T21:18:06+02:00Sun, 22nd Sep '19, 19:05|

I don’t really see the point of all the circumlocution. Joseph Muscat carries the ultimate responsibility for all the awkward answers a truly independent and impartial inquiry could turn out.If it is determined that the state could have done more to protect Daphne Caruana Galizia, the buck stops with Joseph Muscat. If it is determined [...]

Repubblika replies again

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2019-09-22T07:50:50+02:00Sat, 21st Sep '19, 17:48|

Repubblika refers to the government’s statement (PR 191970) that reacts to our statement of this morning. The fact that retired Judge Michael Mallia’s involvement in the criminal inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia followed “the consent of all parties involved” does not address the potential conflict of that role with the role of [...]

Repubblika reacts to announcement of inquiry into Daphne’s assassination

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2019-09-21T08:05:37+02:00Sat, 21st Sep '19, 08:05|

Statement by Repubblika: REPUBBLIKA’S REACTION TO ANNOUNCEMENT OF INQUIRY INTO THE ASSASSINATION OF DAPHNE CARUANA GALIZIA Repubblika has supported and continues to support the call by Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family for an independent, public inquiry into the assassination of their wife and mother. We are now deeply disturbed to learn from the family’s statement of [...]

Ali Sadr will have to keep tagging anklet

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2019-09-21T07:53:14+02:00Sat, 21st Sep '19, 07:53|

An order by the US federal court has confirmed the requirement for Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad to keep on his electronic tag which is used to confirm he has not breached his bail conditions and attempted to leave the tristate area around New York. Ali Sadr's bail pending his trial, now set for 2 March [...]

Caruana Galizia family ask to meet government to discuss inquiry

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2019-09-21T07:44:02+02:00Sat, 21st Sep '19, 07:44|

Statement by the Caruana Galizia family in reaction to the government's announcement for a public inquiry into Daphne's assassination. Daphne Caruana Galizia’s heirs request meeting on composition of board of inquiry A Public Inquiry chaired by a respected former judge is what all right-minded people have been calling for since our mother’s and wife's assassination. [...]

Truth and Justice: Sandro Ruotolo

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2019-09-20T12:18:48+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 12:18|

https://youtu.be/BfzT7EQJACI I beg you to excuse me for reading my speech, but since I do not know English, it had to be translated. Today is an important day for you, but it is also an important day for us, or rather, for all of us. When, on the 26thJune, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council [...]

48 hours later

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2019-09-20T11:42:03+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 11:42|

The Fabulists is a new book by Financial Times journalist Michael Peel. It is subtitled "The World's New Rulers, Their Myths & the Struggle Against Them". The book is a great read but I mention it to you here because of its chapter on so-called "European values". "The EU's internal divisions over how its members [...]

GUEST POST: The MFSA’s annual report

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2019-09-20T11:02:08+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 11:02|

The following is Godfrey Leone Ganado's review of the 2018 annual report of the Malta Financial Services Authority. The report can be downloaded here: MFSA-Annual-Report-2018 Chairman’s Foreward – page 7 In paragraph 2, the Chairman states ‘the Maltese financial services sector continues to be one of the fastest-growing in Europe. It also represents one of [...]

GUEST POST: Sleeping parliaments

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2019-09-20T10:37:38+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 10:37|

Sent in by someone known to me: In the past few days the saga of the UK Parliament’s prorogation has been playing out before the Supreme Court and there have been interesting arguments made on the nature and the structure of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy which also served as the basis of the [...]

Tkellem bil-Malti, ħi!

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2019-09-20T10:23:20+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 10:23|

Look, Alex Agius Saliba's accent of the English language is far from the worst in the European Parliament. And it's thankfully been a long time since there's been only one appropriate way of pronouncing the lingua franca of the world. But surely, since he can, Alex Agius Saliba might do well do consider [...]

Cut the baby in two

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2019-09-20T10:13:39+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 10:13|

Vengeance is not an acceptable principle for laws of our time. The pursuit of justice seeks restitution not retribution. Now, specifically regarding posthumous libel laws. They exist to allow people to protect their reputation if they have any to lose. But in libel as in any other law that we would consider acceptable for our [...]

Princes

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2019-09-20T09:33:59+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 09:33|

Joe Brincat has publicly mocked campaigners that have lamented the breakdown of the rule of law. He intervened in a constitutional case I brought ridiculing my argument that freedom of expression and the right to protest was a more important consideration than Owen Bonnici’s zealotry and his keenness to ensure flowers at the Great Siege [...]

GUEST SERIES: Pandora’s box (2)

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2019-09-20T11:02:45+02:00Fri, 20th Sep '19, 08:59|

This series started out as an investigation into the American University of Malta, based on an interview with an ex-staff member who was part of the mass firings. [See When Is a University Not a University] However, it soon opened out on to the wider landscape of corruption saturating Malta. Part 1 is here. There’s [...]

Social media and conflict: the Malta story

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2019-09-16T16:36:57+02:00Mon, 16th Sep '19, 16:36|

I had the pleasure today to speak at the yearly peace summit called by the Community of Sant'Egidio, that is meeting this year in Madrid and discussing "Peace With No Borders". I spoke today in a session focusing on "Media and Social Media vis-a-vis the Conflicts". Twenty-three months ago today Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a [...]

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