MaltaToday carries a report about a man who was arraigned in court for having made what turned out to be false claims about ex-PN leadership contender Francis Zammit Dimech. The man had made these claims on Facebook and Zammit Dimech considered them to be sufficiently injurious and false as to...
The cost of a paper
posted by Jacques René Zammit
So the Times must have gotten their feathers ruffled by the news that their spanking new premium scheme is rather “hackable”. That’s only if you call refreshing a page before the irritable subscription request pops up “a hack”. The thing is that beyond what are...
This wall is on fire
posted by Jacques René Zammit
Kurt Sansone’s Sunday morning article introducing the Times’ (of Malta) new premium scheme kicks off with a tenuous comparison to the introduction of the Rediffusion a good 77 years ago. Biblical scholars tell us that the number 77 signified a very large number as in Jesus’...
Guernica revisited
posted by Jacques René Zammit
The other day I was browsing the news on my phone when I came across an item about a series of bombings around Irak and Afghanistan. I remember thinking how this kind of news has become so frequent as to become almost unnoticeable. My first idea of news is in the early eighties when the...
The United Kingdom...
posted by Jacques René Zammit
The UK Parliament is under huge pressure (including a looming deadline) to enact new measures that would regulate the behaviour of newspapers. The highly controversial measures have seen an increase in cross-party negotiations as the Lib-Dems (Tory partner in government) seem to prefer an...
Il-punt (Ħadd ieħor)...
posted by Jacques René Zammit
U il-baġit? Il-baġit ġa lest. Il-gvernijiet ewropej ftehmu fl-aħħar. Għandna baġit ewropew. Ovvjament f’żokrot id-dinja jgħodd biss il-biljun u ftit li twiegħdu lil Malta. Mhux li ta min jissottovaluta dan il-fatt. Anzi xieraq ngħidu li l-gvern preżenti ma setgħax jagħlaq...
They promise the ear...
posted by Jacques René Zammit
The short man from Milan is back. His political campaign has begun (as always) on the football field with the return of the prodigal son Mario Balotelli to the Milanese fold (sponda rossonera). Berlusconi hit the headlines in Italy today with his promises of major tax cuts and institutional...
Questions of Bias II
posted by Jacques René Zammit
The other issue relating to bias presented itself fittingly just as I was being discharged from my one-day stay in hospital. The one and only guest on Where’s Everybody’s TVHEMM was the indefatigable Franco Debono. Franco’s interlocutor on the programme would be the usual...
Conscience, liberall...
posted by Jacques René Zammit
François Hollande has found himself in quite a fix. His government is currently pushing the kind of law that is very easily labelled as ‘liberal’ (and consequently carries all the baggage that you might identify with the word these days). It’s France – the epitome...
Oops!
posted by Jacques René Zammit
The European Parliament vote that determines whether Tonio Borg will make it to EU Commissioner might turn out to be a nail biter after all. We already knew that the liberals and the greens would be exercising their right to not believe that Tonio Borg’s track record in government can do...
J’accuse goes ...
posted by Jacques René Zammit
A comment about pigs is all it takes for the inevitable viral. I wonder whether once the pc is turned off, the mobile is lost and the tablet is misplaced the main talking point still remains Adrian Vassallo (MD)’s porcine jibe. This is all part of the general conspiratorial plan to bore...
Porcine Anatomy
posted by Jacques René Zammit
Following the last presidential elections in the United States a couple of states will be legislating the universal right to marry (including same-sex marriages) and a couple of others will be legalizing the personal use of marijuana. The French government has itself begun to debate a bill...