Permission to say no

By
2018-02-05T16:59:15+01:00Mon, 5th Feb '18, 16:59|

Jason Micallef used Labour controlled media to support that woman filmed using her walking stick to clear out flowers, pictures, messages and candles left at the Great Siege memorial in Valletta to remember Daphne Caruana Galizia and demand justice and an end to impunity. He follows a chorus that includes Joe Brincat, Ray Azzopardi (the [...]

Stand by your doctor

By
2018-02-05T15:34:18+01:00Mon, 5th Feb '18, 15:30|

There wasn't much hope to begin with. The talks between the doctor's union and the government today were unlikely to reach a satisfactory conclusion given how the two side disagree on the direction of the privatisation of hospital management. The government is not likely to budge. There's too much money at stake flowing into pockets [...]

C Schembri: Malta in search of authors

By
2018-02-04T21:32:11+01:00Sun, 4th Feb '18, 21:32|

Guest post by Charles Schembri: Luigi Pirandello’s acclaimed play “Six characters in search of an author” comes to the conclusion that the only pathway for these destitute individuals to find a meaning for their situation is best explored if these characters were themselves to be the authors. And still the dramatist through inference does not [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: No stone unturned

By
2018-02-04T22:31:01+01:00Sun, 4th Feb '18, 21:08|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Confined as he is by constitutional and legal limitations, Magistrate Bugeja is also marked by a stark warning from Muscat, who on television, in an evening that will be remembered as the kristallnacht of this regime, warned him of unspecified consequences should his findings not be to [...]

Bent over onion-head and other stories

By
2018-02-04T07:26:10+01:00Sun, 4th Feb '18, 07:26|

I’m going out on something of a limb here. I do see the funny side of the hekk jgħid il-Malti figures around Valletta. Seeing Jason Micallef on the happier side of a glory hole, unveiling everyone’s favourite statue of the bent over androgynous onion-head was hilarious. And the memes were never ending, in a good [...]

Has Adrian Delia decided to Occupy Justice?

By
2018-02-04T06:55:16+01:00Sun, 4th Feb '18, 06:55|

Party leaders get to assign areas of responsibility to their parliamentary group. It’s all a dress rehearsal for the exercise of the prime minister’s prerogative that in our rules gives him or her complete hire and fire rules on government ministers while obviously he or she are held by the hire and fire discretion of [...]

EP President in fresh call for international investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia killing

By
2018-02-04T08:38:39+01:00Sun, 4th Feb '18, 05:28|

Ronchi dei Legionari is a town the size of Żurrieq on the Italian border with Slovenia. Their press club set up a journalistic prize commemorating Daphne Caruana Galizia. And it has announced that it has been accorded patronage for the prize by the European Parliament. In a statement the Ronchese journalists association said "this is [...]

Statement by David Gonzi

By
2018-02-03T00:23:00+01:00Sat, 3rd Feb '18, 00:23|

The following statement refers to the story I published earlier today about the arrests in Italy in connection with a Mafia money-laundering ring that used a Maltese company to launder money. The Maltese company used to be owned by a fiduciary company in which David Gonzi is one of three partners. But as the below [...]

UPDATED: Mafia slot machine king arrested: laundered money through Malta company formerly held by fiduciary co-owned by David Gonzi

By
2018-02-02T20:51:42+01:00Fri, 2nd Feb '18, 19:51|

Italian police have arrested Benedetto Bacchi known as "Ninì", nicknamed the King of Slot Machines. He was part of the Palermo Cosa Nostra. He was arrested with another 30 suspects the closure of 50 slot machine outlets and the arrest of 4 million euro. Benedetto Bacchi ran an operation of some 700 outlets generating a [...]

The Guardian: EBA investigation into Pilatus

By
2018-02-02T18:38:50+01:00Fri, 2nd Feb '18, 18:38|

The Guardian marks the beginning of a regulatory investigation into the supervision of Pilatus Bank. The European Banking Authority is acting on requests from the European Commission and the European Parliament. Because that's what regulators do when they receive reports of alleged wrong doings in an organisation within their competence. They look into them. They don't [...]

Friends. What benefits?

By
2018-02-02T16:44:44+01:00Fri, 2nd Feb '18, 16:44|

I wrote yesterday that Panama-company-owning, oil-procurement-interfering, alleged-hospital-contract-fixing, reported-boat-purchase-commission-making, alleged-power-station-collusion-crook, Minister Konrad Mizzi was walking buddies with Darren Casha who spent a long time away from the country running from creditors. It looks like there's a proper bromance going on here, a mutual admiration society of two. Does Konrad Mizzi think there are no further depths [...]

MEPs defend Maria Efimova from slander in Cypriot media

By
2018-02-02T11:42:30+01:00Fri, 2nd Feb '18, 11:42|

The following is a statement by MEPS from across the political spectrum of the European Parliament denouncing reports in the Cypriot media -- carried with conviction of fact by Labour journalists here -- slandering Maria Efimova who corroborated other eye witness accounts of wrongdoing at Pilatus Bank. Brussels, 02 February 2018 Joint Statement Recently, several reports [...]

UPDATED: Misguided empathy

By
2018-02-02T16:58:16+01:00Fri, 2nd Feb '18, 11:29|

Updated 16:00. A copy of the actual decision by Magistrate Joe Mifsud is here. The premises for his conclusion are carefully documented so perhaps there may be alternative analyses of his reasoning. 30_01_2018-3_2018-109986 I’ve known Magistrate Joe Mifsud for many years. He was my first boss when he headed news at Bay Radio. I was 15 [...]

Truth to power

By
2018-02-02T09:41:29+01:00Fri, 2nd Feb '18, 09:41|

I wish to pay tribute to the young lad who stood in front of the President and spoke to her about what really matters. I have spent the last 4 months lamenting that most protesters for justice and rule of law had wrinkles and white hair, or beards. A copy of his speech is here. [...]

Go to Top