Once again Joseph Muscat got his staff to argue with journalists, this time from El Pais, why they're justified in sweeping away candles and flowers left in protest in Valletta since Daphne Caruana Galizia's killing. "According to a spokesperson," reports El Pais, "the problem is that the candles and posters are on the monument dedicated [...]

Watch this interview, one of the best of his I have seen, that Matthew Caruana Galizia gave Spanish newspaper El Pais. https://youtu.be/l17oXkSp6pY From the newspaper report that featured this interview: "All that European attention towards Malta, the tributes to Daphne Caruana Galizia in Strasbourg where the press room of the Parliament bears her name, contrasts [...]

Defence lawyers for Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, have filed nine separate pretrial motions ahead of his trial in the US Federal Court for bank fraud and sanctions busting due later this year. The motions are intended to have the prosecution’s case against Ali Sadr dismissed before the beginning of the trial. The legal memoranda in support [...]

Letters mailed to MPs of both sides of the house are regularly checked by the Army before they’re delivered to their homes for reasons that should be obvious. The army scans them for bombs and stamps them as inspected before their delivery. But a loophole in security proceedings meant that letters mailed to MPs at [...]

Times of Malta filed it under their “Odd News” section. But is it really that odd? Maria Efimova tweeted a short clip of herself and two other women dancing and challenging Joseph Muscat to a dance-off. “I challenge you to a dance battle,” she said. “Whoever loses, owns Egrant.” @JosephMuscat_JM, I challenge you to a [...]

Statement by #Reżistenza After 500 days, the masterminds still enjoy impunity and power Five hundred days after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the masterminds of her murder are still amongst us, enjoying impunity and power. No journalist has ever been murdered for a lie he said. Journalists have always been assassinated in revenge to [...]

The European Commission has criticised the Maltese government for not taking significant steps to fight corruption. In its periodic country report on Malta published today, the European Commission complained the police are understaffed and the permanent commission against corruption is unable to act independently and effectively because of flaws in its structure. The Commission noted [...]

Jason Azzopardi issued this statement through the PN earlier today. “Last Friday evening I collected my correspondence as I normally do from the reception desk at the PN headquarters. The correspondence included a white envelope that looks like it was mailed in Germany. “When I got home I opened my correspondence including this envelope. The [...]

Here’s another one that is brewing. Our ballot sheets will be counted electronically soon. Agents of political parties will no longer stand behind a transparent sheet of thudding perspex breathing down the necks of officials paid to look for the next number on the ballot sheet and dumping it in the relevant pigeon hole. Instead, [...]

One of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s lines that keeps coming to mind is the one when she said you will corruption everywhere, in every country at every level. What’s specifically Maltese is that here “the attitude to corruption is corrupt”. You can draw a straight line from that attitude to the Maltese attitude to civil liberties. [...]

The Indian Finance Ministry is starting the first prosecutions against Indians found to have set up off-shore companies undeclared to the Indian tax authorities discovered by the Paradise Papers. The November 2017 leaks by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists discovered companies incorporated in several jurisdictions including Malta. The Indian Express has reported that a [...]

A few days ago I wrote about a decision by Consuelo Scerri Herrera who is now the last word on cases appealed by people convicted by lower courts. That article was about the case of Charles Le Brun acquitted on appeal for pocketing VAT collected from his customers on the basis of a technicality, not even [...]

It’s a cliche of WWII movies. But in those two words — ‘Papers Please’ — is the power of the State to disrespect individuals, interrogate them not on the basis of a reasonable suspicion because of any of their actions but for being there and looking the way they do, invade their privacy, humiliate them, [...]

Reading the Times of Malta coverage (see below) of the conference organised by bankers and finserv intermediaries yesterday really made my blood boil. It’s perhaps why I can never work the beat and cover these events sitting quietly in the back taking notes. There’s the classic line of Edward Scicluna who may know a thing [...]

Read this interview with Joseph Muscat on Politico.  At first, you might think it’s a narrow tactical debate for the European Socialists in which Joseph Muscat butts with a centrist, perhaps slightly right of centre inclusive strategy. The context is quite straightforward. Socialists in Europe are trailing in many countries and they are losing the [...]

Note: An earlier version of this story reported that MFF is part of the Elbros Group. This is incorrect. Saviour Ellul has separated from the Elbros Group before the occurrences described in this report. A follow-up report in Spanish investigative journalism website El Confidencial points the fingers at MFF Ltd, a part of Saviour Ellul’s [...]

I find it particularly disturbing that the PN and its media continue to ignore the fate of Mario Portelli. I can understand the hesitation and pause to collect the facts. Not everyone knows the laws regulating involuntary committal of people off hand though of course, it would have taken the PN the same time to [...]

It's not just that Joseph Muscat was letting his hair, such as it is, down. That video of a debauched circle jerk which I uploaded earlier was filmed inside the chapel of the Girgenti Palace, the official summer residence of the Prime Minister intended for formal state occasions. Michelle Muscat, who redefines the meaning of [...]