From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Tumas Group still owns and operates Yorgen Fenech’s casinos. Tumas Group still owns and operates Electrogas, a public contract acquired through (alleged) corruption and (allegedly) protected by murder. "Tumas Group is run by Yorgen Fenech’s ‘Uncle Ray’, who instructed him on how to escape the country and [...]

You’ll forgive me, I hope, if I pick on something Robert Musumeci said. Here’s his tweet. I’m not a lawyer and as lawyers go he’s quite the star. He has a PhD and will in no time earn the moniker professor. He’s already teaching law students while I haven’t had a day of law school. [...]

Do please take the time to read this Malta Today report of a court ruling that found that a prison inmate and his fiancée had their rights breached when Alex Dalli, as then prison director, prevented them from marrying. The state was also found responsible for breaching the inmate’s rights when he was punished because [...]

Tonight and tomorrow the KVS on the Quai aux Pierres de Taille in Brussels will be showing performances of Herman Grech's play on the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The performances are being held during the week of the World Press Freedom Day. The picture above shows the last technical rehearsal before tonight's opening. The [...]

My second book The Third Siege of Malta, edited by Alessandra Dee Crespo, has made the ‘long list’ for the National Book Prize 2021 in the Literary Non-Fiction category. The long list is the full list of publications deemed eligible for participation in the competition. The Third Siege of Malta, published by MidSea Book, faces [...]

The administrative review tribunal denied a request filed by former minister and EU Commissioner John Dalli and his daughter Louisa who wanted the right of first refusal on a field adjacent to the Siġġiewi property where they live. The field was sold by the Lands Authority by tender, but the offer made by the Dallis [...]

Questions put by this website to Ronald Vassallo, spokesman for the Labour Party, on whether the Labour Party accepted funds from the Tumas Group since its former CEO, Yorgen Fenech, was charged with murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia, were sidestepped. Ronald Vassallo only replied to one of three questions put to him concerning whether at any [...]

At Sunday’s urgent PN Administrative Committee, the PN’s Deputy Leader Robert Arrigo informed the committee the PN had recently accepted donations from Ray Fenech, uncle of Yorgen Fenech and his successor as CEO of the Tumas family business, sources say. This website asked the PN whether it had received funds “from the Tumas Group and [...]

Today is World Press Freedom Day. In a small city in the Friuli region of the north of Italy there's a secular Via Crucis of journalists remembered as martyrs for truth. An association of young writers and actors called Le Ombre (The Shadows) last Saturday marked World Press Freedom Day by leading a group of citizens [...]

A court today ruled a journalist had substantially proven the allegations he had published against Neville Gafàin 2016. In the intervening time David Lindsey has left journalism and went on to do other things. The case against him was beset by delays. The magistrate hearing it got promoted causing delays in the case. The journalist’s [...]

A regional court in Varna has ordered Jason Azzopardi to pay Christo Georgiev, owner of the defunct Satabank, around €3,000 in damages and court fees after Georgiev’s SLAPP suit against Jason Azzopardi for remarks the then MP made in Parliament. Jason Azzopardi had not filed a defence in this case. Speaking to this website Jason [...]

A libel court has found in favour of a journalist in a libel case brought by former Joseph Muscat senior aide Neville Gafà. The court ruled that the journalist, then Malta Independent on Sunday editor David Lindsay, had proven in substance that it was true that Neville Gafà pocketed illegal payments from Libyan people wounded [...]

Is there any universe where this piece of officialdom, utterly bereft of irony, certainly not intended as a criticism of China's human rights record, a memorial to the Tiananmen massacre, or a warning to Taiwan, makes for good street art or even an adequate "monument to commemorate 50 years of Malta-China relationship?"

Read this from yesterday’s The Malta Independent on Sunday: In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Farrugia expressed his hope that if nominated, the Opposition would back him. “I have a great respect for many of the MPs and Bernard Grech himself, as they did a lot of good work in the previous [...]

The title of this post was, a possibly apocryphal, question asked on a radio quiz show. The participant asked for a hint and the host told her one of the four was called John. Who were the other three? "Paul, George, and Ringo?" This video is not apocryphal.

Opposition figures are gleefully posting posed photos taken with the government ministers they’ve been hired to shadow, grinning stupidly in front of a row of flags pretending to pose for official photos of international diplomacy. The difference they don’t seem to understand is that whether it is a photo of some visit between friendly countries [...]

The Council of Europe’s committee on rules of procedure, immunities and institutional affairs found Rosianne Cutajar committed a serious breach of the Parliamentary Assembly’s code of conduct when she failed to mention that she had a “professional relationship” with Yorgen Fenech in a speech she gave at the Assembly when it debated a resolution on [...]

European Commissioner Vera Jourova announced today a new EU directive to ensure courts in Europe have the power to dismiss at an early stage vexatious cross-border libel suits. The courts will be empowered to give journalists and activists targeted with cross-border SLAPP suits remedies and to penalise people who file abusive cross-border court cases aimed [...]

European press freedom NGOs reiterated their offer of technical assistance to the Maltese government and the Commission of Experts appointed by Prime Minister Robert Abela to implement the recommendations of the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry. In their annual report on their activities to promote press freedom 15 international NGOs that partner with the Council [...]

Here's Joseph Muscat wearing Prada.   Guess who else wears Prada. Ugh.