A Culture Minister is not enough to coordinate the flipping of protest graffiti on the canvas sheeting of hoarding. You also need a Chairman of the European Capital of Culture to supervise works on site. You never know. Here's Jason Micallef this morning, facing the prospect of imminent redundancy as the hollow Valletta 2018 program [...]
Robert Arrigo is hosting a birthday party for his constituents on 1st December at the Dolmen Hotel. That is the sort of thing you’d normally read in the second half of the pages of in-Nazzjon, if that’s your idea of fun. But this year Robert Arrigo has made the strategic decision of not promoting his [...]
Owen Bonnici read somewhere Leonardo da Vinci wrote against a mirror to confuse readers who might try to steal his discoveries. So he sent his employees to flip the hoarding decorated last night with graffiti to face inwards. Owen, here's a note. We can still read 'thgiR saw enhpaD'. You're such an ostrich!
I don't usually do this but I noticed some people were sharing this piece this morning on Facebook. I wrote it a year ago today which of course was one month after Daphne Caruana Galizia's killing. I remember writing the piece on the flight back from Strasbourg where I had gone to attend the naming [...]
The only weapon a journalist has is credibility. Which is why that's what people in power investigated by journalists focus all their fire-power on: destroying that credibility. Daphne Caruana Galizia has become a worldwide symbol of this unequal relationship and how tyrants and crooks all over the world have understood that to get away with [...]
The hoarding around the Great Siege Memorial this morning continues the protest demanding Justice.
This is a statement #occupyjustice delivered outside the Valletta police station a few moments ago: Today #occupyjustice has lodged a formal report calling on the police to investigate Yorgen Fenech, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri following fresh revelations about 17 Black, by The Daphne Project, an international consortium of journalists, last week. The investigative reports [...]
In a Facebook post this afternoon, NGO Integra Foundation has called for the immediate removal of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. "The evidence (and not speculation) in relation to 17Black is indisputable," the NGO said. ħ The NGO, a member of Malta's Platform for Human Rights Organisations works on issues related to children, gender, LGBTI, [...]
Yesterday I criticised TVM for agreeing to cover Konrad Mizzi events at which the rest of the press is not invited. Today Konrad Mizzi’s boss backed him. OPM told Times of Malta it would not interfere in Konrad Mizzi’s decision on which press he might invite and which he might leave out. This practice used [...]
Follow this feature that TG2 broadcast this week after the Italian government accused Malta of breaking international law pushing migrants it has saved closer to its neighbour and abandoning them there. And see why a government that does not answer journalists' questions when it is accused of illegalities at sea becomes instantly suspect on its [...]
It may have been the sight of a pissed off Samuel L Jackson that did it for me but this piece by Chris Peregin is top of the pops. The tongue-twisting legalese that Joseph Muscat and his fellow travellers are using to get themselves out of dodge has transited from dubious to inconsistent to angry [...]
The Institute of Journalists’ criticism of Konrad Mizzi for dodging the free press is perfectly legitimate. But it raises questions it does not ask. When Konrad Mizzi wants to communicate a message to the outside world he no longer does so by speaking to the press. He uses public funds to produce adverts on social [...]
Several countries of the United Nations raised major concerns today about the deterioration of freedom of expression in Malta following the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and highlighted the inadequacies of the investigation into her killing. The United States of America, Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Holy See, [...]
All partners in Electrogas should by now have made clear statements explaining what they knew and did not know about the creation of a Dubai company — 17 Black — and its commitment with Panama companies Hearnville and Tillgate to pay them large amounts of money. A Reuters investigation has confirmed that 17 Black was [...]
Inexplicably, Adrian Delia tweeted this this morning.
We have worn the sobriquet Mafia State uncomfortably for some time now. One intuitively recognisable characteristic of communities that embrace the values of Mafiosi is their inability to recognise themselves for what they are. To the point where the rituals of a society that institutionalises its hypocrisies and ritualises its inherent stupidities become a badge [...]
A 45-strong European Parliament committee is recommending abolishing all ‘golden visa’ or ‘passport by investment’ schemes, including Malta’s. The Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance has found in a draft report that the economic benefits of passport sales do not compensate for the serious money-laundering and tax evasion risks they present. [...]
In more innocent times, when Evarist Bartolo didn't himself cover up for corruption under his watch and when not even he, the old fox, realised Joseph Muscat was in on it with Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, the smooth-talking wise guy dared to say on tape Konrad Mizzi should have quit politics when his Panama [...]
Look, if the new Commissioner for Standards in Public Life is going to start from his first day looking for reasons not to rock the boat, he might as well stay out of it. We have enough institutions dodging bullets like slugs chewing on their own viscera. I can understand the primary objection that a [...]
