This short featured on TG24 of Rai in the last couple of days. It is by Ilario Piagnerelli. https://youtu.be/ryarR_fYnbU

By Mark Sultana, BirdLife Malta CEO Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Its strategic position was always appreciated by war strategists, economists, peacemakers, traders, and the likes since the link between Europe and Africa was crucial for their missions. This train of thought works the same with nature and more [...]

Our democratic government has again censored the protest memorial in Valletta. The assurances given by the Prime Minister to international press freedom NGOs that the matter would be reconsidered had the longevity of the Munich Agreement and the sincerity of the Prime Minister as that of the proponent of that deal. They waited until journalists [...]

The current story about the testing of MPs for drug use is seriously unpleasant. I don’t think any of the politicians involved are handling this well. The public already has much reason to mistrust politicians and if the crisis of confidence in the political class continues getting worse the route to populism and democratic failure [...]

Robert Mugabe used to be the darling of the West. His fight for majority rule in Rhodesia was respected because it was just. And his government was mostly sensible at first. He was used to being portrayed well in the international press as the Good African President. Then corruption, tyranny, greed and violence set in [...]

Public transport users have fond memories of me. Many people would be on a bus and spontaneously think of me and my old association with buses. But if they think of reading my blog on a bus, they're not allowed to do so on the Malta Public Transport wifi network. You can though visit glennbedingfield.com [...]

Civil society is rising. Tuesday's turnout was a response to the indifference and mockery from the political class of people acting in defence of what is right and out of love of country. The people marching on Tuesday were not responding a call to support this political party or that one. They were not cheering [...]

Many speeches were delivered at several events organised on 16th October on the anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination. No one quite beats the Old Testament and the third chapter from Ecclesiastes 3. But this speech by Socialist MEP Ana Gomes at a conference hosted in the morning by MEP David Casa is a distant [...]

  This story on The Guardian explains how Christian Kaelin of Henley and Partners brokered financing of political parties in the Caribbean that would give him exclusive contracts to sell their passports. He would work with SCL (that would eventually found Cambridge Analytica) and though he denies actually paying the political parties’ bills himself he [...]

Read this report of an investigation by Cecilia Anesi, Lorenzo Bagnoli, and Giulio Rubino that have been looking at the crimes in the wild open ocean that surrounds us. In that harbour, those tired, creaky vessels; those bored crews hanging their laundry on deck; are resting in a pirate's bay waiting for their next gig out [...]

Look at this Reuters film about the European regulatory decision to shut down Pilatus Bank. Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed it was a laundry for corrupt money. Her source was Maria Efimova. The two women were victimised and hounded down. They were threatened. Eventually one ran into hiding where she reads in silence the vilification she [...]

The protest memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia has now stood for 24 hours, longer than it has for some time. Of course, no promises for tomorrow. This photo was taken now. In the meantime here are some images from yesterday's protest march and vigil.  

The Editorial of The Malta Independent felt its freedom was breached by some remarks I made about their story from last Sunday. Their Editorial said, "blogger Manuel Delia was quick to claim that our story was a 'government leak'." Since what I said about their story was actually a smaller part of a commentary I [...]

NGOs visiting Malta on a mission to understand the situation of freedom of speech here have concluded that the situation in Malta is not a happy one. The fact that a journalist has been killed is rather a hint one would think. But the business as usual, matter of fact manner the government insists that [...]

The human rights spokeswoman for the German liberal FDP and chairman of the Human Rights Committee Gyde Jensen said: "The murder of the Maltese journalist Galizia is a black spot in the history of Europe. It is unbelievable that the masterminds are still at large. The assassination must finally be solved completely. This requires a [...]

Here's the Freedom Lecture delivered on Monday by John Sweeney in memory and honour of Daphne Caruana Galizia. And below are some images from the night.

(Reuters. Published on La Repubblica) I'm translating the concluding paragraph of yesterday's La Repubblica coverage of the street march in Valletta last night: "One thing is certain. The feeling at this time in Malta is that the parted seas will now not flood over again and more importantly no one in Castille is [...]

At an event hosted yesterday by MEP David Casa in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Joseph Farrugia stood up to do something too few artists did this past year. He spoke out against the murder of a journalist and in defence of artistic and journalistic freedom. I am reproducing his moving speech below. But I [...]

The real mystery is why it took them so long to say it out loud. Those who objected to the scheme the first time the idea was first pronounced anticipated all this. Selling citizenship helps tax evasion, not merely tax avoidance as the sophists would suggest we should distinguish. It is also a threat to [...]