Burmarrad is now Versailles

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2018-04-10T06:59:29+02:00Tue, 10th Apr '18, 06:59|

The ‘urgent’ awarding of a planning permit for the prime minister to gut his Burmarrad house is not just embarrassing favouritism. I am not an avukat-perit but I can smell rot as much as the next guy. The permit granted to the prime minister is also illegal. Here’s a summary of the facts. Firstly, Planning [...]

There was never much hope. Just a fool’s hope.

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2018-04-09T18:44:05+02:00Mon, 9th Apr '18, 18:44|

We never expected the Labour Party to be our ally in the fight for free speech. We never expected them to protect journalists. We never dared hope they’d protect The Times of Malta, The Malta Independent and Malta Today. We never saw much chance they would defend Lovin’ Malta or The Shift News. In each [...]

EUROMONEY: “No trust in Malta”

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2018-04-09T19:34:32+02:00Mon, 9th Apr '18, 17:25|

Anġlu Farrugia may protect Keith Schembri from answering the question whether Schembri was a wedding guest at the Four Seasons in Florence at Ali Sadr's wedding. But alas he cannot protect Malta from the consequences of the friendship struck between Keith Schembri, Ali Sadr and the rest of the gang of crooks that colonised our [...]

Christian Kaelin tells his side of the story in controlled interview

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2018-04-09T11:44:03+02:00Mon, 9th Apr '18, 11:36|

In an interview with 'Investment Migration Insider', a website promoting citizenship-sales schemes, Christian Kaelin responds to criticism of passport sales schemes focusing particularly on Malta and retorting in very much the same vein as Joseph Muscat on similar occasions. Christian Kaelin argues criticism of Henley and Partners is largely the product of "envy of (their) [...]

What the Council of Europe ambassadors really said

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2018-04-08T16:02:23+02:00Sun, 8th Apr '18, 16:00|

Watch this interview that Fr Joe Borg and myself conducted with Pieter Omtzigt on RTK yesterday to discuss the answers he got from ambassadors for 47 European countries in the Council of Europe about the aftermath of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The response was at first reported in Malta coated with the padding [...]

Andrew Borg-Cardona: SLAPPing down Bonnici’s arguments

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2018-04-08T15:46:39+02:00Sun, 8th Apr '18, 15:46|

By Andrew Borg-Cardona: On Monday 9th April, the House is set to discuss amendments to the law that will take into account those made by Jason Azzopardi that will seek to remove the clear and present danger of SLAPP suits in foreign jurisdictions. The word on the street is that the Government will not support [...]

Are the works in Burmarrad still to start?

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2018-04-08T15:31:01+02:00Sun, 8th Apr '18, 15:24|

The permit issued on a weekend to Joseph Muscat, three weeks after applying, raises suspicions that go beyond the grotesque abuse of a public service forced to serve the private interest of the prime minister. See this story first as background. The record speaks for itself. When still Alfred Sant’s poodle, the permit to develop [...]

Planning Authority convenes on a Saturday to urgently approve a permit for Joseph Muscat’s Burmarrad home

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2018-04-07T15:20:59+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 15:19|

Planning Authority staff have been called in at the last minute on a Saturday morning for "urgent work" to find that they were called to process and approve an application by a "Dr Joseph Muscat" for some interior decoration at his Burmarrad home. "Dr Joseph Muscat" is obviously Malta's prime minister who has today, on [...]

“Daphne” A film by La Repubblica and 42° Parallelo

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2018-04-07T15:02:12+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 14:57|

This website is hosting the first viewing in Malta of a film by Italian news organisation La Repubblica and documentary makers 42° Parallelo. The film "Daphne" will first be shown in Perugia, Italy, at the International Journalism Festival. The first Malta viewing is being held on 21st April, 2018 at the Sir Temi Zammit Hall, [...]

At least you’ll never run out of fuel

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2018-04-07T14:37:48+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 14:37|

The comments around Graffiti’s action at the Planning Authority this week are so loaded with irony that the young guys who took that action must feel perfectly entitled to feel pride for what they did. One remark was classic MDA. Developers speak like Frankenstein’s monster in the Boris Karloff classics: why don’t people realise he’s [...]

G Leone Ganado on Malta’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index

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2018-04-07T14:35:14+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 13:52|

Godfrey Leone Ganado analyses Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perception Index and highlights some important conclusions: To start with, corruption is generally defined as “the misuse of public power for private benefit”. In its summary, the Report highlights that Malta’s ranking dropped from an average ranking of 38th between 2004 and 2015, dropping to 47th in [...]

The Malta sample harvested by Cambridge Analytica was proportionately second largest in Europe

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2018-04-07T13:27:09+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 13:27|

Sometimes we have to spell the basics out. I've seen online trolls reacting to the news that Cambridge Analytica harvested 6,000 Facebook accounts from Malta speak like the proper idiots they are. One retort is 'why be too bothered about 6,000 accounts when Labour's majority was of 40,000?' The logic -- oh what a mistaken [...]

American Journalists and Authors honour Daphne Caruana Galizia with ‘Conscience in Media Award’

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2018-04-07T13:10:07+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 13:10|

“The Conscience in Media award recognizes journalists who knowingly have endured great personal costs while pursuing the highest tenets of their profession,” says Sherry Beck Paprocki, president of ASJA. This selective award has been presented only twelve times since 1975. This is no fetishistic album of cuttings of awards and prizes given to a favourite [...]

Cambridge Analytica mined Facebook data in Malta because someone used its services here

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2018-04-07T12:34:43+02:00Sat, 7th Apr '18, 12:34|

More evidence is emerging that Cambridge Analytica harvested data from Malta Facebook accounts. Why did it need it? Because it could profit from using that data by providing services to a client here. Cambridge Analytica and its mother company SCL have a very specific type of client: political parties or political candidates. Someone in Malta [...]

Montenegro: Anti-corruption journalist survives car bomb

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2018-04-06T17:15:32+02:00Fri, 6th Apr '18, 17:15|

Police in Montenegro are quoted by the local press saying they believe that a car bomb that exploded in front of the home of Montenegrin journalist Sead Sadiković on April 1 was a targeted threat. Sead Sadiković is known for a critical weekly TV show reporting on corruption and organized crime in Montenegro. He escaped the explosion [...]

Irish Times: The Double Life of Ali Sadr

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2018-04-06T15:34:35+02:00Fri, 6th Apr '18, 15:34|

From the Irish Times: "According to the US indictment, it seems as though Ali Sadr was living a double life. At the same time as he was allegedly orchestrating the financial links between Iran and Venezuela, he also set about establishing a bank in Malta." If you haven't found a copy of the Financial Times [...]

Read about Slovakia and think about Malta

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2018-04-06T07:28:56+02:00Fri, 6th Apr '18, 07:28|

The temptation is not to write about it again because it's been said before. The greater temptation is not to read about it again. Rewind to pre-2013. Reading about Malta in the world news was rare but mostly fun. We rarely looked forward to the football reports on the international news because Malta was worth [...]

The professional secrecy cop-out

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2018-04-06T06:44:24+02:00Thu, 5th Apr '18, 18:55|

KPMG’s attempt at auto-absolution just does not work. It’s your bog standard ‘We did what we were supposed to do but we can’t be specific in answer to any question because we owe our customer the protection of their secrets’. KPMG may or may not see what’s happening here. They may or may not have [...]

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