When we came back from lunch at around 3pm, George Degiorgio leaned across the dock to whisper in the ears of his lawyers. This morning, he had derided his legal aid lawyers, saying they were poorly prepared and they couldn’t represent him and his brother. Now he was speaking to them in a gentler tone. [...]

The criminal court has just completed the painful process of selecting from around 180 people drawn by lot, 14 citizens, picked to serve justice as jurors in the trial of brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio. They stand accused of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia 5 years ago less 2 days. The Degiorgios have come up with [...]

This is a statement issued today by Dean Andrew Azzopardi together with the senior academic staff of the University's Faculty of Social Wellbeing. Remembering Daphne – 5 years down the line What happened five years ago was not only a heinous crime committed against a journalist but also a crime against democracy and social cohesion that tore [...]

After days of ignoring calls for consultation, Robert Abela appears to have recognised it is of no benefit to him to be seen to rush through so-called reforms to protect journalists without ever speaking to journalists about it. The institute of journalists, IĠM, has secured a reprieve, a postponement of the adoption of the flimsy [...]

The Gozo court yesterday handed down a two-year suspended sentence to a 37-year-old man from Qormi I had the displeasure of meeting earlier this year. He harangued me in the street in the presence of my wife, my daughter, and her friend, and not having had his fill of hatred he looked up my phone [...]

An international press freedom mission will visit Malta five years after the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The country visit follows up on similar missions held in previous years. Representatives of ARTICLE 19 Europe, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of [...]

Karl Stagno Navarra, for which read Prime Minister Robert Abela, took offence because when asked Repubblika’s Robert Aquilina said it was disappointing the Labour Party was organising a rally for its supporters on 16th October, the fifth anniversary of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Somehow Karl Stagno Navarra interpreted this remark as [...]

This Wednesday we are screening a new documentary co-produced with Repubblika and Occupy Justice that focuses on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s work as a journalist. We look at the major stories she was working on when her life was ended and how those stories turned out since then. This too is part of the effort to [...]

Saviour Balzan, who co-owns the Media Today group, and sits on the government’s committee of experts,wrote in his and his committee colleagues’ defence today. He ‘sets the record straight’ by explaining what happened over the past 11 months of their existence as a committee. The record didn’t need straightening. The facts, even as he restates [...]

I rarely if ever go down the rabbit hole of debating with an online commenter. They’re obviously baiting you and what’s the point of saying something to someone who would never dream of allowing themselves to be persuaded by anything you say? But this one, beneath my article in The Sunday Times this morning, deserves, [...]

The events marking the fifth anniversary of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia are costing us as organisers around €20,000. We need your help covering the costs. If you don't need explaining why this needs to be done, please help us out. This is where you do it.

Perhaps even after all this writing and speaking in public I remain naive. I still manage to be disappointed by the behaviour of the government and the Labour Party. I should really expect no better. I should never take at face value their proclamations of commitment to the rule of law and their waxing melodrama [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "This Wednesday, we are showing a documentary on Daphne’s investigations and how those stories turned out after she was killed for writing them. On Saturday evening, world-renowned journalist Carole Cadwalladr will speak about journalism in eroding democracies, where ever-more autocratic governments clip the wings of free speech to [...]

For the past five years we the women of Occupy Justice have campaigned hard calling for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia and her family. Here we are on the eve of the fifth anniversary of her killing and justice remains elusive. We may be close to a trial of two of her killers and another [...]

This evening journalists are gathering at a meeting called by the IĠM, the institute of Maltese Journalists, to discuss the draft laws published by the government ostensibly to improve the protection of journalists. One of the published amendments inserts a declaration in the Constitution that says that a free press is the fourth pillar of [...]

Labour TV reports on this meeting Byron Camilleri had with Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Here’s a translation of an extract of the report: “At the meeting they discussed the situation in Belarus and the efforts of the EU, backed by Malta, to keep in touch with that country’s civil society to normalise basic rights [...]

They have nothing better to do than deny the world around them. But that's no reason to let them get their way. This is a question of stamina, of who stays awake at a watch of a seemingly endless night. We must believe that if we stay long enough the light of truth will burn [...]

Together with colleagues from Repubblika I’m spending my days this week at the University campus. Our NGO has a stand at the grand festival which is Freshers’ Week where student societies work on attracting new members, students line up to get a permit for their car to enter the University grounds, potential employers give out [...]

I am putting up here some of the official photos of the inauguration of the Marsa junction last year. I’m also putting up a link to the official video of the event which was broadcast live on the national TV channel. Yep, they interrupted their regular programming to show you this. https://youtu.be/00t_l5XQ-JU It was such [...]