Truth and Justice: Sammi Davis

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2019-02-17T14:18:57+01:00Sun, 17th Feb '19, 14:18|

https://youtu.be/5Y9CzGiIvWQ My son has a habit of asking me difficult questions just before bedtime. I know he’s stalling but he’s really good at it so his questions are never small or dull: Why is a clear sky blue? Why does fog float? Or one of my favourites, if I only ate roses, would my poo [...]

Truth and Justice: Joe Pace Asciak

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2019-02-17T14:11:34+01:00Sun, 17th Feb '19, 14:11|

https://youtu.be/Tc2w07nxf94 A translation of this speech follows: And why should students study History of Art? Why should they study History, Geography, Literature, History of Music and so many other “useless” subjects? And after all, why should they study subjects like Mathematics and Science? And then what about Economics? Isn’t this an area of study that [...]

GUEST POST: Of penguins and vigils

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2019-02-18T07:13:05+01:00Sun, 17th Feb '19, 10:55|

Sent in by someone known to me:   Last Saturday night, after attending the 16th Day of the Month Justice protest standing out in the cold in Valletta, down the road a piece, there was another commemoration event about to take place. Since the morning the public broadcaster PBS was setting up equipment for the [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Iceberg in the Mediterranean

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2019-02-17T08:02:38+01:00Sun, 17th Feb '19, 08:02|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "It is impossible not to suspect that the iceberg is being kept afloat by a criminal conspiracy involving the politicians protecting Dr Fenech Farrugia. "It is impossible not to look at the Office of the Prime Minister, led by that smirking Moriarty, Keith Schembri, for an explanation [...]

Who killed Daphne?

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2019-02-16T14:56:58+01:00Sat, 16th Feb '19, 14:56|

Statement by #occupyjustice: Huge letters shaped into a scrabble-like formation and pointedly asking ‘Who Killed Daphne?’ were laid out in Castille Square on Saturday morning to mark 16 months since the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The action was carried out by #occupyjustice, a group of activists led by women. “The Prime Minister [...]

‘I misled Parliament but that’s ok’

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2019-02-16T07:24:19+01:00Sat, 16th Feb '19, 07:24|

Look at Owen Bonnici lying his way out of his own lies. Earlier he told European Parliamentarians that inquiries into Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri had absolved them. Challenged by Times of Malta to say what inquiries he could have been possibly referring to, he admitted he was not being accurate to help his audience [...]

Two Maltese firms bid to sell Montenegro’s passports

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2019-02-14T14:33:20+01:00Thu, 14th Feb '19, 14:33|

Chetcuti Cauchi Advisors Ltd and Global Information Consulting Group Ltd are two Maltese companies that have bid with the government of Montenegro to sell their passports. The two firms already provide this service in Malta. A list of 22 bidders has been published by industry website Investment Migration Insider. The list of 22 companies includes [...]

Swedish press: Yorgen Fenech ‘accused of bribery – owns gaming site in Sweden’

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2019-02-14T14:34:45+01:00Thu, 14th Feb '19, 14:07|

Photo: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has revealed that Yorgen Fenech, who has been at the centre of the 17 Black money laundering scandal, is the owner of a gaming company operating in the Swedish market.  The company, L&L Europe Limited, which is registered in Malta, was granted a Swedish license to [...]

From the scene of the crime

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2019-02-14T13:12:38+01:00Thu, 14th Feb '19, 13:12|

While the Constitutional Court of Malta ponders on the earth moving question on whether I have the legal standing to complain, here's a scene outside Valletta Police Station captured this morning by Michael Zammit Maempel. I suppose someone will come up with some sort of explanation why bags of used candles are a police matter. [...]

Vigil for Truth and Justice: 16th February 2019

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2019-02-17T08:03:03+01:00Thu, 14th Feb '19, 13:05|

Is the mission accomplished? Have the authorities charged and secured the conviction of the people who commissioned and paid for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia? Have the stories she was stopped from pursuing by her death been investigated by the police? Have the corrupt and the criminal been brought to justice? None of that [...]

Maria Ressa: senior Philippines journalist arrested

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2019-02-13T13:59:37+01:00Wed, 13th Feb '19, 13:59|

Reuters Philippines journalist and editor of online news organisation Rappler, Maria Ressa, has been arrested in Manila on the back of what is termed in that country as cyber libel. The case is one of several mobilised by the law enforcement agencies of the Philippines against Maria Ressa who has been a thorn in [...]

Another Ministry, another corruption scandal

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2019-02-13T10:58:50+01:00Wed, 13th Feb '19, 10:58|

As if to remind everyone that corruption existed before 2013 as well, Ivan Camilleri reported on Times of Malta about the former Mayor of Rabat who, according to recordings held by the police, took kickbacks for a cleaning contract and cancelled the contract when he tried and failed to extort a raise. This happened, allegedly, [...]

The politics of rotten swimmers

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2019-02-13T11:27:27+01:00Wed, 13th Feb '19, 10:28|

The government will try to keep the bluefin tuna corruption scandal strictly at the administrative level. The phone records published in the Spanish press yesterday concern a civil servant and from what we know she did not solicit bribes on behalf of anyone but herself. But there are other complications here. Andreina Fenech Farrugia was [...]

It’s not just the fish that hurt

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2019-02-13T09:18:33+01:00Wed, 13th Feb '19, 09:18|

One is often tempted to assume that corruption is a victimless crime and one can afford to ignore it. The corruption that protects crime happening beyond our horizon on the vast seas that surround us and on which we hold a flimsy claim, even if it sheds blood, is far enough from our eyes to [...]

Council of Europe partners: “no credible indications Malta is investigating who commissioned Daphne assassination”

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2019-02-12T15:53:19+01:00Tue, 12th Feb '19, 15:53|

Organisations engaged as partners by the Council of Europe to promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists see no “credible indications that Maltese authorities are diligently investigation who planned and commissioned the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia”. The report was authored by the European Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, [...]

So long, and thanks for all the fish

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2019-02-12T15:03:23+01:00Tue, 12th Feb '19, 15:03|

At 9.45 am, Malta Today posted comments by Charlon Gouder calling for the removal of the Director General of Fisheries as a result of the revelations in the Spanish press of a corruption racket in the industry he lobbies for. That’s the same time, to the minute, that Ivan Martin of Times of Malta was [...]

Summing it up

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2019-02-12T14:22:59+01:00Tue, 12th Feb '19, 14:22|

Yesterday the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee finalised a motion for the European Parliament's plenary that would call on the government to publish the Egrant inquiry in full and to stop the ignoble passport scheme. For brevity is the soul of wit, here's Roberta Metsola's intervention at the Committee meeting yesterday. https://www.facebook.com/roberta.metsola/videos/vb.406824526101449/2535209209853665/?type=2&theater

GUEST POST: Things Owen left out

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2019-02-12T14:23:28+01:00Tue, 12th Feb '19, 14:18|

The European Parliament's Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance (TAX3), summoned the Maltese Justice Minister Owen Bonnici to answer questions on Malta’s failure to investigate alleged money laundering in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, exposed by the Panama Papers.  The Panama Papers, back in 2016, revealed that Malta Prime [...]

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