Arrested at 9.30pm for posting three videos mocking Joseph Muscat at 7.30pm: THE GOLDEN YEARS OF LABOUR+POLICE HELL
My doorbell rang at 9.30pm. It was the police, and not just one, but three of them: the mandatory woman constable (because they were there to arrest a woman) and two plain clothes officers who – I was told later – were Inspector Keith Arnaud of the Homicide Squad (yes, the Homicide Squad) and Inspector Carlos Cordina of the Criminal Investigation Department (yes, really).
They had a warrant for my arrest, issued and signed by a magistrate at the request of the Commissioner of Police.
I asked why they had come at night, which is against the law, when presumably they had come to arrest me for writing about politics on the anti-constitutional and undemocratic ‘day of silence’ and I had been doing so all day. They could as easily have come at lunchtime.
And why had they come ready-armed with a warrant for my arrest, instead of simply ringing me and asking me to go down to the station?
They told me they had been busy all day. Oh right, I thought, sure.
They wanted me to open the gate, walk through and go with them to the CID at the Floriana Depot. I told them that I wasn’t going to do that because I didn’t trust them. It was obvious to me that they had come with a warrant of arrest to have an excuse to keep me locked up until tomorrow and away from the internet, literally physically preventing me from writing.
The stand-off continued, as I refused to open the gate and let them through. I brought out the mastiff so that he could hurl himself against it and howl and bite the bars, just in case they had any thoughts of coming over the wall.
I said I would give a statement in my own home. They refused. I said they could skip the statement and go right ahead an prosecute me, but I wasn’t going to the Floriana Deport at night, and certainly not for exercising my right to freedom of expression.
There was no way they were going to leave so I locked up the mastiff and asked them inside. Then I rang the press.
If they were going to drag me off, they were going to do so in the full glare of the television cameras. What did they imagine – that they could turn up at my house in plain clothes at night and spirit me away to the Floriana Depot?
TVM and Lou Bondi from Where’s Everybody turned up while I was still refusing to leave my house. The glare of the cameras made it impossible for them to drag me away, even as one of them was on the phone to a superior saying that I was disobeying orders, refusing to go with them and that now Lou Bondi had turned up with a camera and there was TVM outside too.
We reached a compromise: I would go down to the Mosta station and be interrogated under arrest there. There was no way I was going to get into a car with them (civilised though they were), so they allowed my husband to drive me. As we were leaving, NET TV turned up and came down to the station along with TVM and the cameraman from Where’s Everybody.
We got to the station at 11pm and I was released at 1.30am after Inspector Arnaud of the Homicide Squad left the room for what I assume was a telephone consultation with his superiors. The interrogation lasted for more than two hours, during which I challenged the basis for their arrest, explained that the law was anti-constitutional, and asked them why – when practically the whole of Malta was discussing politics on the internet, I had been selected for arrest.
I was told they had received a complaint. I demanded to know who had complained. They refused to tell me. But the nature of the complaint – and the reason why they turned up at 9.30pm and not during daylight, became apparent during interrogation.
“Do you confirm that you wrote and uploaded an article about the Leader of the Opposition, at around 7pm this evening, with the aim of influencing people on how to vote?”
And suddenly I knew who had complained, and why they had turned up with a warrant for my arrest just a couple of hours later. Very efficient: there is no way that, were you or I to go down to the station and file a complaint against somebody, the police would rush off immediately to the duty magistrate and obtain a warrant for that person’s arrest, then drive over to his house to arrest him at once (and illegally, after dark).
But while I was fuming at the shocking nature of the situation, a part of me was laughing and this display of Joseph Muscat’s insecurities. I knew exactly which blog-post it was: the one with three videos that show him waddling away from parliament, laying wreaths like a klutz, and making a hick scene in the European Parliament because they didn’t get him a translator.
When I got out of the station at 1.30am, I found the press waiting outside, including The Times. The Times, like my site, has all its election coverage up and permanently published – which means that it remains published on the ‘day of silence’ – rendering an already abusive law totally ridiculous.
Presumably, we are allowed to influence people with political articles we wrote a day before, and which remain uploaded, but are not allowed to influence them with any fresh stuff written on the ‘day of silence’. And all the while, people are running riot with political discussion on social media and elsewhere. I am not saying ‘stop those’, which is what the police tried to get me to do. I’m saying ‘stop nobody’.
Oh, and I’m 48 not 49. They were in such a great hurry to rush out this ‘mandat t’arrest’ that they simply deducted 1964 from 2013 and didn’t look at my birthday. A minor detail, but a revealing one.
During the interrogation, one of the questions for my statement was a demand to know why I had called them ‘zibel’ when they turned up at the gate.
I spent rather a long time telling them, in forensic detail, and still I left out several significant incidents because I didn’t want to be there until 5am and Inspector Arnaud is not a touch-typist. I now hope that they will pass my statement round the entire police force, or that someone will take it from the file and do so himself. But I rather suspect it will be locked up.
For the record: I don’t trust the police. This is not a reflection on individual police officers, but the police force in general has become terribly weakened by the rise once more of strong Labour elements who put their political sympathies before their policing duties.
When I said to the officers at my gate that the only reason they had turned up to arrest me was because of discriminatory and abusive political motivation, they got cross. I explained that I was not referring to them but to their superiors who had sent them.
I also said that if the police want to be seen as clean and above such things, then assistant police commissioners like Neil Harrison should not have wives who (while serving as Planning Authority officers) spread themselves all over Labour Party billboards and gave testimonials for Joseph Muscat.
Joseph Muscat had Cyrus Engerer write a book about him, called Malta Li Rrid Nghix Fiha. If this is the Malta he wants to live in, then it’s the Malta of his childhood, the Golden Years of Karmenu Vella and Leo Brincat, when his Mintoffian grandmother took him to shout ‘Viva s-Salvatur’ at Dom Mintoff’s mass meetings.
Anybody who wants to bring back those horrible people – yes, the very same ones – and the days of a Labour/police combo used to oppress people must be stark raving mad or totally stupid.
Now here is the footage filmed by Where’s Everybody and uploaded on YouTube. I apologise for being in total disarray, but when the Homicide Squad turns up at your home to arrest you at night for writing an article about Joseph Muscat, brushing your hair, bringing out the powder and blusher and sorting out some fetching clothes are the last thing on your mind. I just grabbed my son’s jacket and went.
The abusive hypocrisy of it all: a Labour Party advert appears on the di-ve site right next to the report about my arrest for writing an article about Joseph Muscat on ‘silence day’.
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Truly shocking!
Is it? Is it really?
What I find shocking is that after all these years, I’m not the least bit surprised.
You are, of course, right — but there was a place somewhere deep in my soul where I had hoped that the people of this country had evolved just a little. So my shock was at several levels — and so complete that this was a detail which escaped me at the time and which I didn’t articulate.
I guess that people simply don’t change.
Perhaps Charles Mangion was partly right: there is a fundamental difference in our DNA – which from their perspective is ‘bad’ – in that we feel that people are entitled to an opinion and are free to express it, whereas they think that only their view is valid and anyone which does not subscribe to it “…is not part of [their] family”.
This is a truly shocking turn of events but oh, so reminiscent of life under the Malta Labour Party in the seventies and eighties.
Thank you Thank You Thank You, dear Daphne, for not buckling under. You are really and truly courageous.
And thank you Lou for being there too. Both of you are an example of what real journalists are- guardians of liberty in the proper sense of the word.
How utterly disgusting of the Police – to come in the dead of night to arrest a woman journalist. This should be intolerable in a European and democratic country.
SHAME ON YOU.
We should be organising a protest today on voting day to mark what happened.
You would be protesting against the GonziPN government ! Go on !!!
Kemm int bahnan Privitera, il-partit Nazzjonalista fil-gvern MA JINDAHALX fuq il-pulizija u l-magistratura.
Biex tara kif tinkixfu. Meta titkellmu turu bic-car li ma taghmlu l-ebda distinzjoni bejn l-istituzzjonijiet tal-pajjiz u l-poter li jahtaf kollox.
Mela sewwa, Muscat iqaccat lil min kien poggiha taht arrest fit-temninijiet biex issa ghamel l-istess hu. Ahjar zammu, kien ikun jista jwahhal fih.
Gdur u boloh.ghax tafdaw lil min jinqeda bikom biex tehilsuhom minn dawn il-hniezrijiet.
U mbaghad jigu Depares u Bezzina jikkummidjaw bil-PNPL fuq it-Times.
Kos, x’inhuma kwieti.
F*ck off, Eddy.
U li kieku??
Eddy,listen very carefully. I shall say this only once. ‘You’re an asshole.’
Veru naive Eddy. It was the PL who reported Daphne and not the PN.
How stupid can you be. And this is your winning card: the stupidity of the people who listen to you and to your Kim Il Sung midget.
Go to hell Eddy. You and your party or movement or whatever you want to call the PL. Hmieg kontu u hmieg tibqghu. Basta tridu tal puliti.
Qisek il-bahnan Eddy
Eddy I’ve learnt that more than 30 angry Nationalists went out to vote PN after this falsa stikka from Joseph Muscat.
Use your vote!
And so it starts.
Daphne I am with you and proud of you. Your reaction was perfect, clever girl. Well done for keeping relatively calm in this situation. ….and you still look good without powder and blusher.
With your arrest, the icing on the cake has been placed by the PL.
It has ALREADY started all over again! And he’s not yet Prime Minister! “Malta Taghna Lkoll”!
Let us PRAY he will NEVER be.
Where election silence exists, it deals ONLY with campaigning by the political parties and doesn’t even go anywhere near the subject of what the media and people in general should be allowed to say or write.
It is obvious at the outset that this level of interference is in head-on conflict with the right to free expression.
Even where bans exist on political campaigning just before an election, there are limits on interpretation (not near polling booths, for instance) and even so, those bans have been successfully challenged as unconstitutional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_silence
What laws state abroad (at least Italy) is that media should not be biased.
But as you said – I don’t believe the silence part is applicable to media.
But finally – what constitutes media? Daphne writing on her blog can be interpreted in two ways.
1. A journalist writing in a channel that has now become part of the local information network.
2. A private individual who is expressing his/her freedom of speech and his/her personal opinion on an internet blog.
Who can judge which one would that be?
I have no words. But I have a vote.
Mr. Baxxter, you have used only 9 words to say exactly what I want to say.
And votes are stronger than words!
Me too, and it’s been done already.
I have no vote, but I have words. Absolutley unfucking, believable. The little shit begins before he’s even in.
Be back on Monday, Joey, come and get me.
I hear your people are about to replace the ‘Harlem Shuffle’ with the ‘Slutwalk’ and the ‘Thugthrust’
Harry Purdie, first of all it’s ‘Harlem Shake’ & not shuffle(lol you couldn’t even copy & paste it correctly, what a dimwit!). Oh and secondly, ‘slutwalk’ & ‘thugthrust’ already exist. Just walk by Sliema, St. Julians & Swieqi every weekend!
Seems like things might change after all :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAkMTu6q2pY
Ever heard of the Rolling Stones?
Dipstick.
well said !!
But I’m the only one who gets arrested (and what’s more, arrested at night by the Homicide Squad):
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/elections2013/Murmur-of-social-media-and-bloggers-to-test-election-silence-20130308
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130308/local/caruana-galizia-questioned-by-police-for-breaching-political-silence.460735
Interesting that the comments function on The Times seems to have been disabled.
[Daphne – Yes, precisely because of this law.]
I don’t think so – all other articles can be commented on – only the one about last night is blocked….
I was going to watch the movie ‘Hatja’ again but than I thought I why bother when I will be living it in a few days.
Hhahaha. It’s over Daphne. I told you. Say by bye to your protection. Shame on you.
Who do you think you are. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech, You are not above the law.
Daphne daqshekk tkessaht ghx issa qaziztna
Matthew,
The PN is the incumbent government until tomorrow and she still got arrested. So what protection are you exactly referring to?
Matthew, have you realised that you’re making a threat there? Do you think you’re above the law?
Which law would you prefer an individual breaks, the outdated one which states that you can’t discuss politics on the day before elections; or the one which you’re breaking, threatening harm to another individual?
Matthew, this is going back to the 80s where people where told what to eat, what to wear, which car they drive and most importantly what people say.
It can come your way one day if you do not agree with someone.
This is so anti-democratic and we are a European country and not a third world country like Afghanistan.
Jekk lilek qazzitek Daphne, lili paxxietni ghax dejjem veritajiet qalet u ma gidbet qatt. Now we’ll vote and see.
Il veru injorant int min int. Ghamel pjacir lil pajjizek u tmurx tivvota Labour ghax mintiex denju.
Jaqq x’mentalita tal-pastizzi u tar-rahal ghandek!
Mur ivvota il dak tal-Ajkla ghax ghal mieghu tajjeb. Qas biss ghandek idea ta’ x’ inhu freedom of speech.
Hemm hi hareg il-“gazin” mentality … “daqshekk tkessaht”.
Jaqq il-vera nitqazzizhom nies bhalek. Ktiblek bil-Malti biex tifhimni zgur.
Speak for yourself mr JohnUsa.
Titqazzizni. Jien nitqazzez il-mibeghda u t-tghajjjir li johrog minn dan l-blog. Arroganti, pastazzi, snobbish u finalment injoranza kbira ghax mhemm l-ebda kritika imparzjali genwina. Tghajjir , tghajjjir.
U said to which protection I am referring. If Daphne had no protection I am pretty sure that the police could easily have arrested her before – just take a look at the content of the articles on her blog.
[Daphne – You don’t get arrested for writing articles about politics, Matthew. You get arrested for committing serious crimes. Making fun of politicians is not a crime outside totalitarian states. But you love totalitarian states, don’t you, which is why you vote Labour like your mummy and daddy voted for Dom Mintoff and…KMB.]
Freedom of speech is sadly still an alien concept for most in Malta. We should be grateful to politicians like Boffa and Fenech Adami. But we should zealously guard the right to criticise and mock them, and anyone else who stands for public office.
Matthew, go f*ck yourself you hypocritical invertebrate. Has it ever occurred to you and other cockroaches that you could easily avert your eyes and read something else?
Upset about the hatred and insults, are we? Why aren’t you upset about certain media channels? Why the double standards, Matthew?
I’ll be damned if I’m going to let pondlife like you and the people you vote for turn this country into an oppressive socialist shithole again.
Meta tghid “daqshekk tkessaht” qed timplika li jekk tkunu fil-gvern intom m’intomx ser tittolleraw lil dawk li ser ikun kritici fil-konfront tal-Kim il Sung taghkom. Minghajr m’inti tinduna, qed taghmel implikazzjoni ta’ dittatorjat.
Qed tikkonferma dak li dejjem qalet Daphne. “Say bye bye to your protection”.
Daphne qatt ma kienet “protected” minn hadd. kapaci tiddefendi lilha nnifsha zgur. U jekk tiftakar sew mhux l-ewwel darba li kienet kritika fil-konfront tal-PN.
Din hija kwistjoni ta’ freedom of speech, xi haga lil lilkom dejjem dejqtikom u taghtkom f’ghajnkom ghax ma tridux tisimghu l-VERITA’. L-affermazzjoni tieghek tikkonferma l-biza’ ta’ hafna Maltin li titilghu fil-Gvern.
Ma dejqtiux lill-Kap tieghek xbieha mghallqa ta’ Lawrence Gonzi?
He did not distance himself from that action. Dawn il-viedos dejquh lil Muscat? Mlea, Malta taghna Lkoll – Malta triduha taghkom u taghkom biss ghax hekk tkunu tistghu taghmlu li tridu.
Mur ara x’kiteb jason Micallef fuq TVM – iz-zmien jaghtina parir. Issa meta l-PL jibda jkisser, nisperaw li tkun int, wiehed minn ta’ l-ewwel, li tikkritika b’mod oggettiv lill-partit tieghek.
Ahna differenti minnkom ghax KAPACI nikkritikaw anki lill-partit taghna stess minghajr ma nibzghu mir-repercussions! Intom le. Intom tibzghu ghall-image taghkom. Oqbra mbajda Matthew insomma.
You Mr. Matthew (I use the term Mr. loosely) are an idiot. Shame on you?
SHAME ON YOU, Matthew!
We have freedom of speech. We are not living in the Mintoff era where anyone with a different opinion WHATEVER that may be is abused by ignorant insecure idiots.
What is this if not freedom of speech? Pray tell!
That’s the problem with Labour. Only they are above the law. Disgusting. People like you are what makes Labour laughable and childish. I’m going to get dressed in case I’m arrested. I’m not sure if there is freedom of speech anymore.
Go Ms. Caruana Galizia!
Matthew should I post the comment in Maltese…? Idiot!
Matthew, I bet my last cent you stuggle to calculate 1 + 1. Moron.
Loved the moron part – no better word to describe these persons.
Mela one cent hallewlek fil-but il-PN?
What appears to be over isn’t Daphne’s protection. It is your own, my own and every citizen’s right for equal protection by the police, without fear or favour and without discrimination because of one’s political belief.
Daphne hasn’t placed herself above the law. That was done by the MLP propaganda set up with the connivance of the police because as long as the flouting was being done by the LP it was tolerated without the police harassing them by the intimidating serving of arrest warrants in the dead of night by a posse of police.
The Gestapo were notorious in acting like that but they got away with it only AFTER the Nazis came to power, NOT BEFORE.
ISTHI INT, JA GAKBIN TA’ MALTA HIELSA, MODERNA U EWROPEJA!!!!
Imissek tkun tkburi li ghandna persuna, cittadina komuni, fuq kollox MARA, li kapaci targumenta u ghandha l-b*jd taqbez ghad-drittijiet taghna lkoll.
Kemm tifilhu tkunu servili tinvokaw il-ligi meta huwa car li dik il-ligi hija anti-kostituzzjonali ghax tmur kontra d-drittijiet fundamentali tal-individwi.
Kemm tifilhu tkunu injoranti u velenuzi meta tafu u taraw li l-arrest taghha sar b’mod diskriminatorju car ghax il-kummenti politici kienu ghadhom ghaddejjin kullimkien, fit-toroq, fil-hwienet, fil-laqghat informali bejn il-hbieb u ghaliex le fuq l-internet.
Erga’ isma sew l-argumenti taghha fil-videos u iftah mohhok forsi jirnexxilek tifhem ghaliex ghandna nkunu kburin li WAHDA minna, Maltija bhalna, ghandha l-personalita’ u l-istatura li thabbatha mal-aqwa esponenti liberali u tassew progressivi fl-Ewropa u fid-dinja hielsa u civilizzata.
Ghandek ghalfejn tidhak ukoll, ja njorant motivat biss mill-ghira! Jekk dawn huma s-sinjali ta’ kif se titmexxa l-gustizzja taht il-Labour modern u progressiv ta’ JosephMuscat.com, allura int ukoll bhalna ghandek ghalfejn tinkwieta.
Jien kont nivvota labour sakemm irrejalizzajt li l-ingustizzji li saru kontra haddiehor li ma kontx naqbel mieghu setghu jigu applikati fuqi.
GHADA TISTA’ TKUN INT.
@ Say by bye to your protection.
Din hag’ohra. Shame on YOU for admitting with glee that here someone who writes her own blog needs to be protected because of intimidating thuggery from the likes of you.
Shame on YOU and JosephMuscat.com for confirming your true colours. You want to change the direction for our country but YOU HAVE NOT CHANGED AT ALL!!!
If any further proof were needed, IT’S ALL HERE TO SEE, in this post !
Well said. Some things never change. Labour is one of them.
Matthew – you are clear proof of all that is inherently wrong about Labour. You think that it’s perfectly acceptable, or rather right and correct that people who are not of your political colour, and express such as they deem fit, are silenced.
Your hypocrisy and sheer ignorance are astounding.
Matthew could you explain exactly what you mean by that?
There is no way we will accept abusive police behaviour.
Could you also explain what you mean by Daphne’s protection? Till this moment as I type everyone has the right to take legal action against Daphne if they feel abused. On the other hand if I understand you correctly her freedom of speech will be muzzled acording to you.
I assure that this will be unacceptable.
Labour suppporters are a wonderful advert for the reason the right-minded vote PN.
yours will come too under Labour. Wait and see.
Matthew, the law is outdated. It was passed before Twitter, blogs, etc. even existed.
Any Internet communication system is accessed voluntarily by any interested party and nothing is in articles in newspapers which were the principal sources of news and or influences on people’s minds. Ditto for radio and TV.
A private blog is simply that and commenting on it is a privilege, not a right, voluntary and not requested by the blogger.
Any suppression, worse, arrest of the blogger is reprehensible and I believe a case of denial of freedom of speech can be made.
The constitutionality of such law should also be tested since under the same law, not all citizens can be treated equally.
If someone writes on a blog from half a world away, will the police send a posse to round him/her up and bring them to Malta for due process?
Comical, isn’t it? Yet the Labour Party never changes its mindset which is still super-glued in the 70s.
You seem happy, Matthew to threaten a journalist who can outwit the whole stable of half-wits in the Labour media in two seconds flat.
Remember, the pen is mightier than the sword and shutting down one pen will get the MLP nowhere fast because there are millions of other pens which can easily outshine and out maneuver all your dilettantes anytime, anywhere.
Your comments remind me of the adage, ‘il-hanzir taqtalu dembu, hanzir jibqa’.
Daphne: brava for your guts and steadfastness.
How terrible and shocking that these stejjer tad-depot regaw bdew.
Joseph: It’s all about respect and dignity: the basics you don’t have. How long does it take for you to realise?
Proset hej, x’bidla!
Do I want to live in fear, again?
Do I want to constantly dread reprisal, again?
Do I want to not know how my day is going to end, and how it is going to begin the next day, again?
Do I want Yana Mintoff, AST, il-Guy, Joe Debono Grech, Joseph, Jason Micallef, Manwel Mallia and “other unidentified persons” shaping my future and that of the next generations of Maltese under a sham “moviment?” that’s replacing the MLP? The true colours are now out I’d say. What creepy stuff, AGAIN.
Do I wish this to happen to other Maltese, again?
Joseph worships Mintoff. – That is the reality.
The remnants of Mintoff’s team would be back on board with him. – That, is the reality.
Daphne’s arrest on the eve of an election. – That is the reality of “the bidla.”
Direct slap in the face.
And where this came from, there’s always more.
Shame on those who were behind the planning of this (Newspapers included?)
Shame, shame, shame on you Joseph.
And above all: Shame on you, Malta Labour Party.
I suspect Joseph received some information that got him into a temper again. Who knows if it had anything to do with election figures?
I am truly shocked. Unsurprised, but shocked that the new generation of MLP “seers and doers” has openly kicked into action.
Well, if he’s really pissed off about the election figures, then he triggered the only thing that can scare the hell out of the pale blue voters who were contemplating voting for him.
And I forgot to say Prosit to Lou for being so timely and persistent.
Back to the 80s?
A truly shocking event showing the LP of Malta mhux taghna lkoll imma tal-Labour biss, already pushing buttons.
If this is a sign of what is to come if the Labour Party is elected, seems to me Malta will be back in the 60s.
[Daphne – You mean the 1970s and 1980s, Doreen.]
WOW!
Malta taghna lkoll eh! MY FOOT.
Yesterday all Facebook was exploding with messages on politics. In fact Marco Wefi Agius, the brother of Labour candidate on the 2nd district Chris Agius as from 7.00 in the morning kept putting up statuses and photos of his brother to vote for his brother.
Why didn’t the police arrest him? Because he is supporting Labour hux ghax Malta taghhom ilkoll imma mhux taghna lkoll. Ma x’ biza ta’ nies.
U L-KBIR GHADU GEJ
Shame on you Matthew and your party of the Golden Years… Il-maskra inkixfet kollha.
Shame on me :) . Even if the law is not right, no-one is above the law. Mar Lou bondi bil-mod. Baqa diehel hej. Minn jahseb li hu. Anzi il-puizija kienu vera edukatti ghax hu kien vera arroganti.
Btw LP is not my party. I belong to no party even when I voted PN:). Anyone you says he belongs to a party is stupid.
Daphne you are literraly of no value to the country.
The law does not mention private individuals, you blabbering idiot. It mentions political parties, candidates and media organisations. Daphne is none of these.
She is a woman with a blog which does not even carry adverts.
Lou kellu d-dritt kollu jkun ġo dar privata la kien mistieden fiha. Dari tibqa tiegħi anke meta jidħlu l-pulizija fiha.
Ara vera injorant. Jekk vera li xi darba int ivvutajt PN, naħseb għamilt zball madornali għax iċ-ċwieċ bħalek dejjem Labour jivvutaw.
Matthew, ma tqatx qalbek tghid ic~cuccati.
@ Even if the law is not right, no-one is above the law.
Daqshekk int liberali u progressiv, matthew? Il-veru nies bla stoffa, int u min jahsibha bhalek.
Kieku kont tassew liberali u progressiv kien imissek tkun kburi li cittadina komuni u fuq kollox MARA, f’socjeta ghal kollox maskilista u macho, urietna kif ikunu l-FEARLESS LEADERs.
Tahseb li int liberali u progressiv ghax (you) “belong to no party even when I voted PN:). Anyone who says he belongs to a party is stupid.”
Ghandek biex tiftahar ukoll, hej! L-istupidu hu min hu bla principji, qasba tixxejjer mar-rih, dghajsa bla tmun, jivvota bla sens. Jiena wkoll, u hafna ohrajn f’dan il-blog, we don’t belong to any party.
Il-partit huwa strument biex twettaq dak li temmen fih. Jien kont ivvutajt Labour sakemm indunajt li ma kienx il-partit li jhaddan il-principji li kont nemmen fihom jien.
Mill-1981 ivvutajt PN mhux ghax jien propjeta’ tieghu imma ghax jipprattika l-principji fundamentali li nemmen fihom. S’issa m’inix nara ghalfejn ghandi nbiddel il-partit, anzi wara dak li gara lil Daphne, iktar nikkonvinci ruhi li m’ghandix nappoggja u wisq inqas nivvota ghall-partit ta’ JosephMuscat.com.
Zomm f’mohhok li wiehed mill-principji tad-demokrazija u l-liberta’ huwa dak ta’ Rousseau fi zmien ir-rivoluzzjoni franciza:
“Nista’ ma naqbel f’xejn minn dak li tghid, imma niddefendi d-dritt tieghek li tghidu sal-mewt”
Bil-paroli kollu u s-slogans, il-Labour Party ta’ Malta (bl-inkarnazzjonijiet tieghu kollha) wera bil-fatti tul eghxieren ta’ snin twal li m’hux demokratiku, wisq inqas liberali u progressiv.
Anzi rega’ tana prova ta’ kemm jaf ikun totalitarju, faxxista-komunista, li jkasbar id-drittijiet fundamentali tac-cittadini tieghu.
Int u min jahsibha bhalek ghandu bzonn doza sostanzjali ta’ edukazzjoni politika bazika, forsi titghallmu xi tfisser, qabel tibdew tiktbu bl-addocc fuq il-blogs.
Kemm hu f’waqtu dak il-billboard: Halluna NKOMPLU nghixu fil-kwiet!!!
You are what you vote, Matthew, and I hate to tell you this, but it really shows.
Lou Bondi wasn’t intruding last night. He went there at the invitation of the home owner.
Matthew, you always leave the ‘cherry’ at the end of your comments, do you?
Besides, ‘literally’ is spelled that way and not ‘literraly’, but also stop to think for a minute or perhaps longer because after all, Joseph stated publicly that his supporters cannot digest any more than a couple of syllables at a time.
Think about how much less you and your friends are of any use at all especially since most of the time you cannot write properly in either language.
Same as Joseph had difficulty addressing the EP when no translator was available to translate his prepared speech from Maltese to English!
Too bad the EP does not supply teleprompters!
U zgur li jidhol, u jxandar dik il-farsa.
Issa tara la tghid xi haga int meta jibdew jghaffgu kemm tkun trid lil Bondi jikxef il-qerq li temmghulkom.
“Sibt pulizija Laburist” and nobody stirred. They said that was a long time ago.
Spot on.
Disgustanti.
Tidhol ghalihom naqra bir-ras, pero ghandek ragun, u nammirak tal-kuragg biex taqbez ghad-drittijiet tieghek u fl-ahhar mill-ahhar, taghna wkoll.
Ara min irid ikun fil-gvern ukoll.
[Daphne – Ma naqbizx ghad-drittijiet tieghi, Natalie. DAWN HUMA D-DRITTIJIET TA’ KULLHADD.]
Exactly! And thanks for that. It requires courage and determination.
This police action is the strongest and most effective persuasive argument against voting for a Labour government and it was stupidly made made during the day of silence so that we will carry that horrible lesson with us to the polling station today.
Spectre of Mintoffian police state. But then we fought Mintoff until we brought him down from power.
Joseph will not know what hit him if he is elected and adopts an authoritarian method of government with repressive controls.
I am glad that the now classic “Making a hick scene at the EU Parliament” video got Joseph Muscat’s goat.
That video clip is hilarious !
That guy is not PM material, heck he is not even worthy to be class prefect in primary school.
When you were not even a month old, My father and I personally attended the evening Independence of Malta ceremony of the lowering of the Union Jack.
Yet sadly and nearly half a century later, very little appears to have changed in the mentality of institutions like the police in Malta, even joining the EU had little effect on them.
I don’t think that they are capable of change for the better as it seems to be a case of two steps forward and three steps back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2zWN0qT4E
Daphne, I think this is simply a case of John Rizzo playing his cards well to ensure his survival after the elections, whatever the outcome. Bear Grylls is put to shame by the survival skills of Pullicin’s former secretary.
You mentioned the Joseph Muscat’s Google Ads which were still running past midnight yesterday. Well. I have it that though Rizzo had been very clear with both parties that internet advertising was to stop by the deadline, the Labour Party pushed on with them in breach of the law.
On being informed, instead of arresting their CEO with a warrant, such as in your case, since the PL was really in breach of the law which explicitly stipulates that campaigning by parties and candidates has to stop, he merely informed the Nationalist Party that it could restart its advertising on the internet because the Labour Party was doing so already.
You will notice that there was an 11-hour gap in the PN’s advertising on Facebook and Google starting at midnight.
So there you have it. I leave the rest to you.
This proves the different modus operandi of the police when the complainant is the Nationalist Party and when the complainant is the Labour Party. Two weights and two measures and not enforcing the law without fear or favour.
It’s the Maltese idea of what ‘balance’ is.
And it’s a f*cking joke.
Is Muscat upset that he acted like a complete twat?
No.
He’s upset because someone has alerted the worldwide web to it.
Where’s Toni Abela when you need him?
He was too busy making ice cubes.
They are raving mad, as the PL manufactures and wholesales its JosephMuscatDotCom mythology.
The whole five-year-long campaign effort by the PL has sought to define a counter-mythology of heroic endeavor to the PN progressive-EU established endeavors established over the generation and developed over the last ten years of EU membership (2003) and eurozone participation (2008) and solid management through tough economic times (2013).
Mythology and marketing – that’s all there is to the Moviment Gdid. It’s based upon convenient fictions including, among others, revisionist history and the denial of the facts of Malta’s social-economic development, in contrast to the present and historical realities under Labour, including the most recent period of 1996-1998.
Joseph Cambell’s interview with Bill Moyers The Power of Myth is a handy reference. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Power-of-Myth/112843372063235/?group_id=0
The first few minutes of episode 1 on the “hero” is sufficient to provide the context of the 1988 PBS broadcast for current Maltese politics.
The Golden Years. Whoopee!
Unbelievable in a European member state in 2013! So is this the great “change” we are to be expecting if Josephmuscat.com gets his way?
Feels like they just want to turn the clock back to the dark days of Labour where people get a knock on the door in the dead of night, only to be threatened and intimidated.
God help us. Are we Maltese so bloody forgetful and stupid?
I urge every single one of you to go out today, vote PN and show them all once and for all that this country will not tolerate bullies and politics of intimidation.
Malta has moved on. Goodbye, Labour!
BONGU MALTA SOCJALISTA! What a nightmare.
Haqqek ..
Daqs kemm haqqek int tivvota haqqa li grala hekk. Freedom of speech taf xi tfisser Mike?
Shocking to say the least. I know where my vote will be going.
We are behind you Daphne. Those who accuse you are those who should be ashamed of themselves. This is a taste of what’s to come as from Monday onwards.
They are not capable of accepting criticism. They are not tolerant and they will put down anyone who stands in their way. And when they are in government, they will start recruiting PL policemen.
GHall erwieh xgost nara Daphne titbaqbaq. Fl-ahhar life starts get interesting and also a bit fair. Everyone gets what he deserves.
Matthew kemm int imbarazz.
U kemm nieħu gost nara Laburisti ċwieċ bħalek jidħlu hawn jikkummentaw biex ifakkruna għala għandna nivvutaw PN. Beċċun!
One other interesting observation from your treasured warrant.
Magistrate Gabriella Vella seems to have operated with the same efficiency she had when she granted bail to the major player in the oil scandal. I wonder why.
Baxxter says it best. I have no words. However I have a vote.
I too have a vote, and so has my wife, my daughter, her husband, our friends… and we’re going to use it so that these injustices become things of the past once and for all.
Well done, Daph, for standing up to them. I’ve got a vote too.
That was excellent work by Lou, by the way. Simply brilliant.
It was really funny watching two senior inspectors trying to deal with him.
They simply have no idea how to handle the media and they were wrong to imply that Lou was hampering an investigation. Your house was not a crime scene.
They were simply executing an arrest.
Cameras film people being arrested all the time.
Daphne hi KONT TAF il-ligi kif inhi. Daqsxejn stramba x’fettillek taghmel artiklu u xi hsieb kien hemm wara dan. Jien nahseb li dan il-gvern ried jaghmel SHOW bik apposta biex minghalih juri li mhux xi gvern tal- qalba.
Nispera li ggib il-kumment tieghej ghax b’daqshekk mhu qed noffendi lil hadd. Grazzi.
[Daphne – You just don’t get it, do you, Evelyn. No wonder you vote Labour. Nofs mohh.]
Please, half a brain? Bla mohh.
While I can’t, for the life of me, understand Labour logic in interpreting such basic and fundamental democratic concepts, I’m not really surprised in reading such absolute tosh being spouted by them regarding Daphne’s tribulations.
I have lived through the 70s and 80s when incidents like these were so common that if it weren’t for the famous Page Thirteen in The Sunday Times, nobody would have even commented on them.
Malicious Hdura (yes, capital H) is Labour’s trade-mark and vindictiveness, revenge and re-payment of perceived slights will be meted out to all non-Labourites as sure as the sun rises in the East.
Beware people, those being taken in by the glitz of Joseph’s campaign need their collective heads examined.
We face being led by a prime minister whose role it will be to ‘believe’ switchers if his party doesn’t.
It has come to my knowledge yesterday evening that someone had a meeting planned with Joseph some two weeks ago to discuss his energy bill.
The guy’s a millionaire.
Well actually Daphne dear, they belong to this ‘moviment gdid’, and they are feeling very superior at the moment, and kind of ‘know-it-all’.
They also know they are going to win the elections. I’ve been asking everywhere, wondering how the hell they are so sure about this. But frankly, I never got an answer.
I really can’t wait until tomorrow, when they all go back into their horrible cocoons and stay there in the repugnant smell of their socialist ideas.
What a bad move MLP have made, right bang at the end of their extravagant campaign. They have thrown light upon the fact that they haven’t changed one bit. What a waste of money!
Well done, Daphne.
You handled this situation exceedingly well.
By involving the media you managed to get your message out in the best possible way.
I bet that these two videos will have record hits this weekend.
The Labour Party advert on the same web page as the story of your arrest is simply class.
Reason is on your side – keep strong!
This proves what I am thinking. She handled the story so well that it has been made up and planned. All this to put fear in people’s mind. Beware of the old labour past.
[Daphne – No, Matthew, that wasn’t rehearsed. That is how people speak when they are not sub-literate. Clearly, this is outside your experience.]
Matthew, ghanki inti ixxukjat u ma tridx temmen , qed tiprova issib justifikazjoni ghal hnizrija imbuttata mil partit laburista.
Mhux ahjar tara id dawl u issewwi il hsara li ghamilt?
Matthew, you’re pathetic.
Daphne was obviously genuinely emotional in those videos. There’s no way they were staged.
Is this how political dissenters will be treated from now on?
No Matthew, this proves that you are incapable of reading people and blind to non-verbal communication.
@matthew just fuck off will ya
“She handled the story so well”.
Even a jerk can realise who is on the right side of things.
We all know a Matthew.
Socially awkward.
Sitting in his grief-hole, trousers around ankles, playing with himself while looking at homo-erotic porn.
Briefly pausing to impart some urgent gibberish.
It was very clear that Daphne had an inner excitement that was the result of anger but also real fear of the back to the 80s way of life.
Matthew believes in Joseph.
This is Labour Matthew, that’s why we’re here.
People who fake their own image need props like teleprompters and copious notes. Hence Joseph Muscat.
People who speak with conviction and from the heart need no such props. Hence…
Truly shocking! You will never, ever have my vote, Labour, because your sick views will never change. I’m honestly very sorry you had to go through all this, Daphne.
I will vote PN with every fibre of my being.
Jason just posted this on his Facebook wall. Will he be arrested in two hours?
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4387323/jason%20facebook.png
Mqabbdin ma’ Daphne – xejn aktar!
And Muscat has the audacity to speak about “libertajiet civili”. How dare he. I am furious and truly shocked. You have our support.
Yesterday I was on the internet and I have seen an advert by the Labour party.
Now I go on the times of Malta and I see that yesterday you were arrested for breaching political silence.
Simply ridiculous !
Yesterday I ate a Catch, unfortunately I made me remember childhood were Catch was one of the only few chocolates on the market. You have been arrested too…. my childhood was in the 80’s.
Hope that yesterday was the only day in which we remember the 80’s.
Can we make a petition?
For the next few hours use this incident to illustrate to however thinks that Labour changed that NO THEY STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND DEMOCRACY. During the past week many told me these are things of the past. To hell they are!
And so it starts.
Daphne, I am truly shocked. I would never have thought that we could go back to the 80s so easily.
I have my vote too. You have my respect, for what it’s worth.
I’m pointing as many people as I can to your site.
Daphne,ghalkemm mhux dejjem qbilt mieghek dwar il-kontenut tieghek, dan l-episodju kexxkikni.
Ma rridx nemmen li wara tant snin u aktar u aktar, wara li dhalna fl-UE, dawn l-oxxenitajiet setghu jergghu jsehhu f’pajjizna. Imma dan possibbli?
Sincerament, nghidlek biex tkompli zzomm soda u la tibzax.
Nispera li wara l-elezzjoni ssir inkjesta serja sabiex min hu responsabbli ta’ dan l-agir disgustanti ssir gustizja mieghu.
Wisq nibza, anzi cert, li din l-inkjesta ssir biss jekk jerga jkollna gvern Nazzjonalista.
Nappella lil kullhadd sabiex jiftah ghajnejh qabel ma jkun tard wisq.
Morru ivvutaw l-PN.
Labour’s New Tomorrow
Now I get it – I should stop thinking but I can make a living off trafficking.
I made sure to follow Joseph Muscat’s instructions to vote early. Never in my life did I wait in a queue to vote but this morning I was at the polling booth at 6.45 to vote P.N.
Same here, qatt ma ivvotajt daqshekk bil-qalb.
Thank you Matthew for opening our eyes to pleasures yet to come. Those of us of a certain age have lived these pleasures every single day throughout the golden years of the Malta Labour Party and the bitter taste is still in our mouths.
And pray, tell us, does what you say apply to all of us who express our opinion on Facebook or through emails sent to groups of friends?
Are you recommending we all be arrested ghaliex qeghdin nitkesshu?
Are we to again find ourselves in a position where we cannot walk the streets with In-Nazzjon in our hands because it’s a paper that belongs to a different political belief? It has everything to do with freedom of speech and expression. We know exactly what it means.
Let this be an eye opener to those who do not want to vote or who want to switch their vote to the Labour Party because they believe, and many of them rightly so, that they have been badly treated.
Up to now, you could voice your anger and fight for your rights. Do you now want to find yourselves in a situation where besides being denied a right you cannot try to seek redress because you will be threatened or victimised?
Voting has not even started and we are already living the same nightmares of the seventies and eighties. It does not take much to imagine what will happen if Labour were to be in government tomorrow.
Labour has not changed. If anything, it has become worse – the hatred and arrogance have increased.
So if you do not want to do it for yourselves, please do it for your children and grandchildren. Let us not let them go through what we have been through in the past, what Mrs Caruana Galizia has just gone through.
Let us today protest against this incident by casting our vote wisely so as to ensure a continuation of what we have gained through the sacrifices on many of us and secure a democratic and safe future for our children.
There is only one party that guarantee this and, as this episode clearly shows, it is not Labour.
I was also a guest at 9.00 pm at the CID in Floriana during the KMB days.
I know the feeling, and in those days not even telephones worked, and mobile phones were nonexistent.
And it was all about being a whistle blower, and I was asked to sign a declaration of sorts.
I considered myself lucky, other wistle blowers never made it. The following election changed Malta.
Wish I can do something to help you – it’s ridiculous Daphne – support you all the way – we’re not in red China.
Outrageous. I received calls from canvassers all day. God forbid these people are elected.
L-affarijiet mhux hekk isiru Daphne. Darbohra sib “pulizija laburist” u kien izommha kwieta.
X’biza’ back – in the 1980s. I thought we will never go back to those times and in all fairness probably not even Joseph Muscat. But it already shows that under the wrapper (Joseph Muscat) – the terror circle (they know who they are) is rising back from the ashes.
Bongu Malta Laburista
I was under the impression that you can’t arrest someone at night unless the alleged crime is serious……if at all, they should have waited till the morning.
Not only is the comments-board on The Times not active, they do not have the courage to criticise unjust arrests, freedom of expression and unjust laws.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Go vote for a change. Ommi ma, x’gej, u ghadom mhux fil-Gvern.
The 80s are not just on the horizon but with us already.
May God be with you Daphne and with us all. Keep strong, Malta needs you there.
Same old Labour same old police force tactics – bye bye the movements of progressive and liberals but back to the same old socialist terror.
My vote PN PN PN PN PN PN
Alla maghna lkoll.
I hate the dirty bastards already.
Already? How about always?
Labour must be very confident or stupid or both, as I suspect.
To instigate your arrest on the eve of an election after spending a whole campaign trying to appeal to a multitude of undecided voters and disgruntled Nationalists with promises of a new way of doing politics and a break from labour’s ugly past, is as close to tactical irresponsibility as I can think of.
Perhaps it didn’t occur to the planners that news of your night time arrest would stir the media to action and go viral by the time the first voting booth opened.
I cannot believe that’ll be living under a regime again for the next 5 years. It’s just horrific.
Most probably we will have to end up shouting our 80s slogan again: XOGHOL GUSTIZZJA LIBERTA
Fear is the characteristic of the 70s and 80s, and last night’s episode brought it all back.
Back then one had to be careful what to say in public and to whom.
There was the fear of wearing a blue jacket, fear of buying the Nationalist newspaper which couldn’t even carry its full name on its masthead.
Fear of walking to school in my school uniform in 1984.
Fear of being caught out attending subterfuge lessons in private homes during the church school trouble, again in 1984.
Fear of attending PN mass meetings. Of course we did it all anyway, no thanks to Labour.
The fear of speaking one’s mind out loud however was ingrained into us.
Disbelief is the reaction I get when I relate these things to the younger generation.
People must never forget how hard the Nationalist Party worked to achieve the liberty we all enjoy today. This must never be taken for granted. My bad feeling began when I read Jason Micallef’s words about reforming PBS, and now we have this.
It’s all so appalling and disgusting. No whitewashing, change of logo, slick expensive marketing, not party but movement, snazzy buzzwords, will stick.
The leopard’s spots are still clearly and ominously visible. All the faux moderates who are saying they will vote Labour for change would do well to re-think. A change is not positive when it’s a change for the worse.
Like many others, I stand by you, Daphne, and keep it up.
I have no power myself to change the law but I have my vote which I firmly will give to Nationalist Party so as to prevent Malta from becoming once again a police state. KEEP IT UP
Eh ruhi, Malta taghna lkoll – unbelievable.
I didn’t need more reason to vote PN today, but this certainly makes me proud to do so and proud to be picking up my cousin from the airport who is flying out for just two hours to vote PN.
I will never forget the day in 1984 when the doorbell rang and I opened to find two police officers asking for my dad.
His crime was that of hosting church school classes at our home.
I was just 8 years old but that day taught me all I needed to know about Labour. These people never change. You have my full support and solidarity, Daphne!
My God, I remember those days too… I had just come from Canada, mom enrolled me in a private school and we had to sneak around to get lessons in our teacher’s own house.
Shame on them and that is why I would never trust them.
“Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills” Hamlet Act2 Scene II.
Hence the homicide squad.
Bloody fucking cowards.
To all the tal pepe’ who stupidly say they want a change: well, if it happened to Daphne today it could happen to you tomorrow.
This abusive action will spare no one.
We have been through it already so don’t be surprised if it eventually happens to you.
Funny how these people want a change, don’t you think? Are they levelling down and deciding they want to give it a go as their counterparts?
All the switchers I know wouldn’t mind some blokka bajda.
Beware!! That is their true colour.
This confirms that the MLP has not changed at all.
Matthew, there is no adjective which can explain your state of mind. Unbelievable – and Daphne, keep showing them what you are made of. You are an example of freedom.
Dawn in-nies ma jinbiddlu qatt. Nispera li ma nergawx nibdew bil-kantaliena tas-soltu ta’ mien il-Labour.
Il-Madonna tilliberana minn gvern socjalista, mimli ghanqbut ta’ zmien Mintoff. Kuragg, nies.
I received a message from Stefan Buontempo this morning. Can he be arrested too please?
Why not?
Track down Magistrate Dr Gabriella Vella.
“Warrants ‘r’ Us”
Well done for sticking up for your rights and ours too. This is an outdated law. If this is the change being proposed by the PL, then the country is truly going to the dogs.
I pity those pale blue and so-called floating voters who will be voting Joseph for change. This is only the start, you’ll see what I mean by tomorrow afternoon when chaos and havoc will have gripped the country and the normality we lived in up to yesterday will be a thing of the past. Truly disgusting.
To quote Gonzi, ha NIVVOTA BIL-QALB ghall-PN. Thank you, Labour, for reminding me what you are really like in the nick of time.
Oh… And by the way… On reading about your arrest in The Times, I immediately wanted to comment. The comments were disabled then, and still are today. Why are we not being allowed to comment?
We are allowed to comment on the article about Muscat and Gonzi voting but not on the article about Daphne’s arrest.
Please write in to the chicken shits at The Times and post a comment on http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130309/elections-news/muscat-votes.460746 asking them to open the comments on the other article.
We want to have the right to make ourselves heard about what really matters!
Daphne, your house is lovely.
I have no doubt that this is a case of discrimination that goes against the Treaty. However the European Commission can’t do anything about it unless you make a complaint.
As regards the fact that the law is unfair and undemocratic and it cannot be enforced properly in the age of the Internet, unfortunately this should have been tackled some time ago.
I actually have some pity on the police who came to your house since they were only executing orders. What is shocking is that their superiors sent them after dark when it’s illegal.
That’s what the Nazis said at Nuremberg, “I was only obeying orders”.
Malta taghna lkoll my a**.
X’ arukaza ta’ nies! I had political posts all over my Facebook all day. I even made a search on investopedia yesterday and the ad of Malta Taghna Lkoll popped up.
Labour canvasers posted ads and posts all day in favour of their candidates.
Then they were so selective on their arrest. And you know why it was at 9.30pm. As there was no way that the news would be as a news item and if you were not brave enough to call for the media no one would know anything about it, as after they hijack TVM on Monday morning there was no way that this news item would be broadcast!
We admire your courage.
Marion and Joe
However polite the two police officers were they had no right to question Lou Bondi’s presence there. He was asked over by the house owner and had every right to be there.
Instead they played the victims accusing Lou of interfering with their work.
Tajjeb ukoll! Go dari u il-pulizia tindahalli lil min nistieden jew ikun presenti.
Obviously the homicide squad had to be there, Daphne. It was a character assasination article – on the other hand I wonder whose character it was – ghax kollha bla sugu jew ahjar bla karattru.
That was just a rehearsal. The real show starts next Monday.
Who is Magistrate Gabriella Vella? Is she aspiring to be a judge?
I think that another reason why they wanted to arrest you was to detain you for 24 hours and keep you from voting.
The only magistrate appointed during Carm Mifsud Bonnici’s tenure which is turning out to be a bad apple.
Pity we only realised after she bailed the two kingpins in the oil scandal on terms similar to those applied to bail pickpockets.
Carm Mifsud Bonnici was spineless.
Il-bidla bdiet lejliet l-elezzjoni.
Cwiec.
Sa d-dardir qabadni nara dawn l-affarijiet.
Le vera gejna sew kemm huma mill-aghar. Nirrah Alla ma jtihomx il-grazzja li QATT QATT U QATT li jitilghu fil-gvern ghax marmalja kienu u marmalja ghadom u iktar ma nara dawn l-affarijiet iktar ma nnizzilomx u ma navdahhomx.
Din Malta taghna lkoll li qed jghajjtu biha? Iktar ma nara iktar nghid u niftahar li jien Nazzjonalista.
I sincerely hope that the floaters, switchers and undecided finally see the light – or rather the darkness they will be in for the next 5 years if they don’t vote for freedom of speech today.
This isn’t just about Daphne, but the life we will live in the next five years which, unless people see sense, is going to be very very unpleasant.
Oh come on! This is ridiculous. You can’t stop the internet. I can understand stopping political activities, but this is ridiculous.
Apart from that there are many candidates (the first political post on FB which I saw was from PL candidate Luciano Busuttil) who posted political articles on FBduring the silence day.
In any case I can’t see the need for such urgency to interrogate you under arrest, but I am convinced that the pressure to do so was from above and not from these particular police inspectors.
Go Daphne!
Respect for being a gutsy ballsy woman, not only in your articles and blog but even when faced by a real challenge as that of last night.
Well done on calling the media and documenting how Labour’s tenure has already started… Very night of the long knives style…
Yesterday, in Xewkija (Gozo), the postman delivered political material of a PL local council candidate.
Details, please. Who was it?
Darbohra “sib pulizija laburist” u kien izommha kwieta.
X’biza’ – back in the 1980s. I thought we will never go back to those times. But it already shows that under the wrapper (Malta taghna lkoll!) – the old MLP terror circle is rising back from the ashes. Lorry Sant kien jonqos!
Bongu Malta Laburista
Daphne I waited till the early hours of the morning to see the upload on Lou’s facebook. It was shocking. The policemen themselves were embarrassed.
Although irrelevant I bet that they were Nationalists, because that is the way PL works.
It brings us back to the dark ages of Malta. Let us not forget that the people who are projecting to lead our country (come tomorrow) come from Mintoff’s and KMB’s stable.
Let us hope that the switchers will have a change of heart today when in that ballot room so that we can say that at least we will have another five years of serhan il-mohh on everything.
I commend you on last night’s interviews that give a real picture of you and how you look at serious journalism, especially to those who just criticize you without knowing your feelings of the past.
My last word to Lou. Thanks for being there to enlighten us how the police force will start acting in the thick of night if Labour ( God forbid) will start leading this beautiful country of ours.
Dawn qatt ma jinbidlu.
Come on, Daphne. We’re not going through that hell again.
I admire your courage..Inspiration for democracy and freedom of expression.
Like at the start of the election campaign when they couldn’t wait for the dissolution of parliament, now they couldn’t wait for the election result.
Desperately shocking!
Solidarjeta.
The question is whether Labour’s willing or allowed to concede defeat.
After what happened to you last night, this morning I went and voted PN.
I was going to vote Labour for the very first time in my life. But this is not the Malta Labour are promising.
This Malta back to the 80s.
Now I believe that these people will never change and I hope that more people will realise this.
I am not writing my name because I know that if I do, they will end up harrassing me for writing this. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK DAPHNE.
Questionable case though it’s not unsurprising.
On the other hand though, PN (and PL as opposition) could have legislated on the Silence day any day of the last 15 years.
They did not, so apologies, but this shows how inefficient our politicians are.
After having heard DCG’s “back to the 80s” take of the issue, I’d like to hear the views of the Commissioner and PL on this before making a judgement.
Oh, and yeah, I guess it was quite obvious someone was going to break the silence. Whether this was orchestrated or not, I don’t know but I’m pretty sure the political implications are quite interesting.
BACK TO THE GOLDEN SICKENING MINTOFF YEARS.
THE ENEMY IS ALREADY AT THE GATE.
I admire you. You are our voice for freedom of expression.
I cannot imagine myself going back in the 70s and 80s.
I HAVE A VOTE TOO.
I’m sorry you had to go through this ordeal, but as you rightly said, you have to challenge a law for it to be amended. Thank you for standing up for our rights.
I was out last night and news of your arrest spread like wildfire.
It’s disgusting and it is frightening though I’m sure it served to open the eyes of some of the disgruntled – nay, ungrateful – Nationalists who were thinking of voting for change.
Why they didn`t arrest Brian Bezzina and Dr Tua, they send me SMSs on Friday, or they are upon the law. Please Sur Commisario take note.
Maybe the police commissioner is too scared to lose his job if Labour are elected, which looks like it. So the police commissioner keeps Labour happy. The police have already upset you under the PN and nothing happened.
Malta is a police state. Unfortunately Nicholas Azzopardi did not have the same means to deal with the police.
It’s a shame the PN left the police force unreformed.
The last thing I needed to convince me to vote PN. You’re great. And you still look lovely.
[Daphne – Thank you, but I looked a total mess, which is roughly what I felt. Scary people. I realised what we’d come to when I found myself running to hide my computer and ring my lawyer as soon as I saw them at the gate, as though I was dealing cocaine or something. Incredible.]
Reminds one of the dreaded Gestapo, in the dead of night, knocking on the door of those considered by the Nazis to be undesirables.
I felt so angry and helpless last night.
@ “I realised what we’d come to when I found myself running to hide my computer … as though I was dealing cocaine or something. Incredible.”
To me that says a lot about you and your convictions. In that computer I see all of us here.
Here we go again !
FEJN HU SAVIIOUR BALZAN L-EDITUR TAL MALTA (Labour Party) TODAY. XI HAGA KONTRA L-PN IKUN L-EWWEL LI JIKKUMMENTA.
LILI QATT MA MPRESSJONANAWNI L-OPPORTUNISTI.
Quoting H.P Baxxter “I have no words. But I have a vote.” and I am proud to say that I will be casting a vote in favour of the Nationalist Party. I am 24 and, fortunately, I did not go through “those times” but I can assure you that I am not ready to experience them.
This is NOT the definition of “democracy” that the Greeks sought to define. Truly appalling.
Daphne, I cannot speak for anyone else but I can speak for myself. I’m 100% behind you.
And now on Facebook a certain Victor Laiviera commented ‘Nobody complained, Edward. It was a set-up between the PN, DCG and Bondi.’
Please note that this person doesn’t even have a profile pic. I’m sure your arrest convinced some more people to vote PN like I’m doing
Victor Laiviera is an aging Mintoffian who yearns for a return to the Golden Years.
For blogg you get arrested
For a blokka you don’t get arrested
Good one, Tony.
Slight inconsistency in your article. You said you arrived at the station at 11pm and was released at 1.30pm. I believe you meant am, didn’t you?
[Daphne – Yes, thanks for pointing that out.]
Apologies for uploading the same comment twice …..
I am disgusted. I wish I was your neighbour. Shameful act. God bless you Daphne.
Daphne, I wish I was your mastiff. I’m sure this morning he’s still upset at you for denying him the doggy opportunity of a lifetime to sink his fangs into a policeman’s thigh.
Prosit Daphne for the standing up for your convictions.
PL’s ‘new tomorrow’ began earlier than expected.
If this is the best thing a homicide squad police inspector can do, I wonder there are so many unsolved murders in Malta.
Let’s not forget the deaths of Nardu Debono and Nicholas Azzopardi. Why has the homicide squad not solved the murder of Nicholas Azzopardi which happened under their nose?
Amazingly articulate in both Maltese and English.
The point that Daphne made to The Times journalist was sublime. If people feel libelled by what Daphne states they can do as Magistrate Herrera did and sue….and where did that get her. She eventually had to back down.
Diga hadu over! Ahseb u ara x’ha jigri nhar it-tnejn.
Mhux “pulizija laburist” wiehed ha “nsibu” ma wiccna…u min kien jibghathom? Min kien jibghat il-pulizija jwaddbu l-gass tad-dmugh? Same old…same old.
We helped to save Libya, but we should have worked to save ourselves from the anti-democratic MLP (PL, blehhh). When they are in power we’ll be worse than what Libya used to be. Last night was merely a taster.
I honestly hope that everyone who votes MLP will shoulder responsibility for the disaster which they will be causing. And they cannot blame it on MLP. It is clear what awaits us!
As far as I know an arrest warrant has to comtain all the correct information otherwise it becomes invalid.
By them getting your date of birth wrong that cancels the warrant as it does not describe the facts in a correct maner and as a result it can be for someone else.
You could have sent them back and asked them to come with a correct one.
To all my English-speaking friends who cannot understand the frenzy we go through in Malta during elections. Please do listen to this video.
It brings back to me the same memories Daphne went through. We are in the same age bracket.
During the time I was working in the civil service and in 11 years I was transferred 11 times from one office to another, not because I didn’t carry out my duties properly. Far from it.
I hate self praise but I still meet people from both political parties who praise me for my work and my ever ready nature to help.
I never looked and will never look at a person if he is blue or red.
I was transferred for the only reason that I have always supported the Nationalist Party and because I used to buy the Nationalist newspaper IN-NAZZJON and walk in the road with the newspaper under my arm.
God forbid we go back to those times. My last transfer was to the REFUSE DISPOSAL CENTRE to be taken care of by IL-QAHBU an infamous Labourite from Zejtun, this transfer taking place 5 months after the tragic death of my father.
Now you know, dear friends, from both political parties, why today I will vote PN. For a free Malta, for the good of our families. God forbid we go back to those dark times which still haunt my memory.
Here we go again. Political arrests in the dead of night. Plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose.
Thank you Kenneth Zammit Tabona and other enlightened and progressive individuals who think they know better than us all. Congratulations for taking us back to the dark ages by strengthening Labour’s belief that it is in the right.
Is a roofed theatre really that important now?
Hang your heads in shame.
Shocking footage.This was all planned Daphne that’s why they were asking people to go out and vote early – they knew you would write om ‘silence day’ and they wanted to arrest you at 9.30pm hoping the story would come out later on today when most people would have already voted.
Well done, Lou Bondi.
I’m sorry that you had to go through all this last night Daphne, however thanks to this you were given the chance to speak on camera and show their TRUE colour. They have been trying to project serenity and calmness within the Labour campaign. FAIL.
I knew I was going to vote PN. I did at some point think that we really might benefit from having a change on this little island. To what? This? Thanks, but I believe in PN and so has my family for many, many years.
You inspire me, my family, and plenty of people who are very close to my heart.
Unfortunately those who vote Labour do so only because they believe in violence, pay back and thinking that their own narrow personal interests would improve (although they are not ready to do anything about it) ‘ghax Joseph jahseb fijjha’.
SAHHA, EDUKAZJONI U XOGHOL.
Shame on those who want to take us back to the days when half the population could not express its opinion freely. Who wants to go back there? Our vote is the best tool today!
I finally brought myself to watch the clips. I am speechless. But I HAVE A VOTE!
Irrespective of party and belief – during the day of silence, if so it was, weren’t the billboards and banners of either party supposed to be taken down, together with all FB advertising advertising Google ads being stopped.
Whoever complained should do some cleaning up at home first.
Jekk xejn, il-ligi ghal suppost hija l-istess ghal kulhadd!
shame on the magistrate who signed that arrest warrant
Maybe the duty magistrate is acting in self-preservation.
We saw this under Stalin, Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein etc.
Welcome to new Malta under Labour!
Daphne, I think I’m in love with your intellect. Even at 1.30 in the morning, you’re coherent, succinct and lucid.
In two languages and under severe stress!
Also, I received SMS messages from one particular party during this theoretical day of silence, supposedly to help me with my transportation or other kind of help during today’s voting!
Who are we kidding – is that not another form of campaigning (incognito)?
By the way, in terms of publicity, this was the worst move possible by josephmuscat.com propaganda machine.
The police commissioner knows that his job is in line if the LP gets elected.
This is another desperate (ass-licking) attempt by the police commissioner to save his job, this will back fire on him.
It is ironic that a woman issued an unjust warrant of arrest of another woman on Women’s Day.
How can one even consider voting for such party! Even checking out the Facebook comments which don’t reflect the spirit of Malta Taghna Lkoll jew il-Malta li irid jghix fiha! Maghqudin my A%%!
Imma kif tista tivvota Lejber? Kuragg Daphne u zommna updated please ghax il-verita twegga fil-laham il-haj u jekk Joseph Muscat mhux lest li jaccetta il-kritika, mela zgur mhuwiex denju li jmexxi dan il-pajjiz!
Aħna kollha Daphne Caruana Galizia
Daphne, hi, tal-bassa ma felahiex u ried jaghmel xi haga biex ma jkomplix jaqa’ ghan-nejk
I follow this blog assiduously because you, Daphne are the only person who I find expresses the way I think and perceive things.
Your courage and bravery are truly admirable, very few people stick their necks out the way you do. Please do keep safe.
As for josephmuscat.com….what a sham, what a con, what a fake! Fake from the very start.
Fake – for his new love for all EU when he was one of the main elements pushing for non-entry.
Fake – for his newfound admiration for Fenech Adami…..how dare he!
Fake – his election campaign, a Xerox copy of everything Obama!
Fake- for his so-called embracing of civil liberties, when we all know his thinking is a throwback to the 70s and 80s.
Fake – A new tomorrow, when all we’ll be getting is a very old yesterday. There’s so much more, but need I go on?
My appeal to anyone with their heads screwed on properly is to go out and vote for the only party that can guarantee peace of mind.
The only party that allows you to wake up in the morning and not wonder what surprises are in store for you that day.
The only party that has a crystal clear idea of where we are heading (and that’s definitely not ‘gas down ghal-gol hajt’ like josephmuscat.com).
That party is PN. Think clearly people.
Joseph.My family and I were about to give you our vote today…but not after what happened last night. Shame on you. We are truly disgusted.
Daphne …..Be Proud, Hold your head up high Girl. You are fantastic….. IS SEWWA DEJJEM REBAH.
That jerk, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando Smith BA, said on Facebook that he was not going to vote but when he saw the Daphne was arrested he decided that he shall vote. As if his wife would allow him to abstain, ghandu cans ja buffu.
Why hasn’t the Police Commissioner issued a warrant for the arrest of Toni Abela and his party club president for concealing that drug evidence?
Why hasn’t he issued a European arrest warrant for John Dalli?
Daphne, I am so sorry that you had to go through such a terrible ordeal but I admire the way you handled it with so much courage and grace.
This incidence proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Labour has not changed one iota. They are as arrogant, intolerant, ignorant and vindictive as ever.
Daphne, this is what happens to you if you don’t stop mocking the clumsy waddling penguin.
So the law says that we citizens of our democratic republic can mock our politicians every day except the day before an election.
Sounds like a good deal.
But who said that we can mock ALL politicians? PL has been calling for the police to stop Daphne since forever. And why? For being such an insufferable critic of the PL circus.
They could never stomach criticism, and they’re not about to make an exception now, on the eve of their ‘finest hour’.
Something tells me that this is not the end of this story.
Keep safe.
I’m truly shocked. I hope that this dark episode will convince those who truly believe in freedom of expression to vote PN. It’s the only safeguard to the freedom we have taken for granted since Eddie became our Prime Minister.
It must have been a horrific experience for you and you have my admiration and support. What a pity we have no other journalist any where near your calibre.
Thank you for everything.
Incredible, same old…
The sad truth is that the PL don’t even realize that their plan only backfired.
Instead of keeping DCG out of the way not to influence voters, it just had the opposite effect.
Another bad decision…can you imagine if they make a couple of hundred of these decisions a day that affect your life?
Dritt ghal gol-hajt! Vote for freedom and not political favour. VOTE PN.
The very fact that people will start to think twice before saying anything will cause the rot to eat away at policies and good ideas.
It’s a self perpetuating mechanism. The west prevails because freedom of speech is the lubricant to every cog propelling an advanced society.
They just don’t get it.
Jeremy, you should be a candidate next time round.
Some things never change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSlME6qus4
@ Dejjem PN
Me too
@ MAGISTRATE GABRIELLA VELLA
Can you please issue an arrest warrant for Joseph Muscat as his adverts have invaded my computer? On the other hand, forget it! We’re all with Daphne on FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
I am sorry about what happened, to you and your family.
PL changed the logo, but the wolf is still in its sheep’s clothing. Please stay well.
Thanks and kind regards
jes
It did happen to Daphne, but everyone has to realize that what happened yesterday also concerns each and every person out there, yourself included.
Malajr ha jaghmilna Protagonisti dak Joseph. Beda bik, Daphne.
This is beyond ridiculous, indeed, it’s completely unacceptable.
It’s obvious that some of our politicians need a crash course in the importance of freedom of expression.
If an incoming Labour government think that they have the right to make use of unjust laws to muzzle their political opponents, they are not reckoning with the power of the internet.
While police officers are duty bound to obey orders, this does not exonerate them from any responsibility stemming from enforcing unjust laws. The defense of “superior orders” has long been found to be irrelevant in a court of law.
There is also the question of morality and ethics – which come before orders.
This is one freedom on which there can be no compromise – it’s the one thing which can keep the powers that be on their toes, be it a Labour or a Nationalist government. Sadly, it’s obvious from some of the comments that the importance of this is lost on a large part of the electorate.
Daphne, to my regret I am unable to write under my name (my IP address will have to do) but do also point out that, alongside the utter illegality of having you arrested at night, yours was, at worst, a non-arrestable offence ie. there were no grounds for arresting you to begin with.
The signing magistrate, somewhat inexperienced in criminal law, must have been subjected to immense pressure in order to have the warrant issued.
I wonder whether something like this would swing the KZTs and the Drakes back to the PN.
The very people they fought against in the 80s are waiting in the wings and rubbing their hands with glee.
[Daphne – Why do you assume they fought against them?]
A CRYSTAL CLEAR PICTURE OF MLP, open your mind (poplu Malti) the choice is yours.
Interesting that Maltastar, the first to report about such news usually, makes no mention of the arrest AT ALL.
NET TV were not allowed to publish the entire news because the Authority censored them. Diga ghamluha fatta l-MLP: hadu over u beda zmien il-jasar.
Xoghol, Gustizzja u LIBERTA`
I find that extremely shocking. Isn’t it a story?
Would have thought that the MLP were smarter! Must admit that am very impressed at the efficiency of the police force.
Not surprised that the Labour media, including Malta Today, did not respond to your call. I assume that you approached all media.
And how about the mailshot from AD which I received on my gmail? It says 9.30am on Friday. Should AD be questioned too?
The Maltese police force has hit a new low. A ‘blokka bajda’ is a no-case from the police commissioner, but a post on a personal internet website needs three officers and a midnight questioning.
A farce! The general public should be outraged.
NEXT TIME it will be one of us. A simple Facebook message or Tweet that displeases PL, and you will have the police at the door.
PROUD TO VOTE P.N. “Ir-Rebha Taghna Tkun”
To paraphrase yourself, GO, DAPHNE, GO, PUT THE RATS IN THEIR PLACE.
Thank you for speaking up for the rest of Malta.
Well done to you.
Well done to Lou Bondi.
You were both excellent.
The Times are now officially the pits. They only showed a very small part of the statement you gave to the media and forbade any comments by readers.
Incidentally, what is the Institute of Maltese Journalists up to these days? Its silence is deafening.
Daphne , we will beat the streets for you ANYTIME .
I’m OUT and f***** proud.
I saw your shock and felt your panic, only a blind person would not.
I was scared too waiting for updates. Unbelievable! 2013? And to quote Baxxter, no words but VOTE.
Matthew sounds like Franco…”l-istess hdura”‘. Thank you, Daphne, for standing up for what is right and just.
So sorry and shocked about what happened yesterday. If I recall correctly, when Alfred Sant was prime minister, he had some people prosecuted just because they were criticising him, while they were having a meal in a restaurant.
These people never change, not even the younger generations because they have been brainwashed since they were little.
So upset by this that I actually wrote a post on my strictly non-political Facebook page – I trust that the powers that be will take note of the reaction to this abusive behaviour and model their behaviour accordingly!
“sibt pulizija laburist u ghedtlu ma jmexxix”
F’dan il-kaz sibna pulizija Laburist u ghednilu jmexxi…bil-ghaggla, malajr u ma jdumx.
Just received a phone call from the MLP. I wonder what the purpose of the call was!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130309/local/police-question-four-for-breaking-the-silence.460748
Apparently there are 4 other people being questioned, however no arrest has been issued towards them – all involved in the PL.
Dear Daphne,
I was not going to vote. Thank you for your sacrifice. Bless you!
You made me change my mind.
Daphne jien kulltant ma naqbilx mieghek, pero fuq din naghtik l-APPOGG kollu ghaliex veru kullhadd kiteb il-bierah! Jistaw jarrestaw lil tlett kwarti ta’ Malta!
Din hija tal-misthijja u ta’ min jabborija, diga bdejna bil-kummidji ta zmien ilu u dawn ghadhom ma telghux ahseb u ara jekk jitlilghu.
I simply cringe upon reading all those comments against you and Lou.
It’s not simply because they are fools, but they – who haven’t even got the slightest idea of what this is all about (i.e violation of a fundamental human right – freedom of expression) – are blabbering on a social networking site: the modern symbol of freedom of speech.
The same right you are striving to improve, but the same right they are using to mock you.
But what’s worse is that these fools have a vote. What I call the downside of democracy!
And I’m here, just a couple of months away from my 18th birthday, analysing what both parties say, horrified that I have to share the burden yet to come. Today those people are imposing turmoil on my future.Today, I have no voice.
What heart felt words yoyo… hopefully WE will be your voice… have faith!
Daphne, PL candidates have also been questioned. It would be interesting to know if they have been treated the same way as you. if they sent 3 police officers at 9.30pm with a warrant for their arrest…! Kuragg.
Daphne, Laburisti are trying to shift the blame onto the PN because it is in government. This is very disingenuous and can easily confuse some voters.
Maybe you can add some information to the article explaining the separation of powers between the police and the government.
The Prime Minister, or anyone else for that matter, cannot stop the police from arresting someone. This is what Toni Abela tried to do when he went searching for a pulizija laburist and why the democratic amongst us found it absolutely shocking and appalling.
This separation ensures that even people from the government can be arrested if they commit a crime.
The PL of the 70s and 80s is notorious precisely because there was no separation of powers and the force was simply the government arm which obliterated (or at least tried to) all government opposition.
For comparisons look at China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and other undemocratic countries.
I am sorry you had to go through the arrest. It’s a shame as you are clearly a protagonist of defending our rights as individuals in a democratic country.
Many people do not understand this and prefer to sit pretty and complain.
Throughout this campaign I have noted that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average PL voter.
What has the Police Commisioner got to say about these accusations? Back to the past.
Shocking & disgusting!
It should be an eye-opener for “floaters” and for “ex-PN voters”. Today it’s Daphne, tomorrow it could be you or me, if somebody with power or with influence does not like opinions of yours or mine.
Dr Joseph Muscat or PL, please come out and tell us that you disagree with whatever Daphne has been writing, but you fight for her right to freedom of speech.
Then, only then, we can believe your big words of “Malta for all” and “civil rights” etc.
Allura magistrat/a ma t/jaghmilx studju tal-kaz qabel ma t/jiffirma mandat ta’ arrest? Jekk il-kaz huwa hekk allura m’hemmx ghalfejn wiehed jistudja l-ligi.
It’s funny that when I needed the Sliema police to shift a car parked directly in front of my garage it took them all morning (I started calling at 8am and they turned up at midday) – and this didn’t require arrest warrants or anything complicated.
Seems the police can be efficient when they want to!
To all the Astrids and Kenneths out there and to all others lovingly nursing some self-perceived ‘hurt’.
So far you could luxuriate in publicly moaning about petty issues because you were living in a state where your rights and freedoms were respected and safeguarded.
Voting AD or PL into power will not put a roof on the Teatru, but what it will most certainly do is put a cap on your fundamental freedoms.
Astrid knows what Lorry Sant meant.
Does she know that Tander Saliba of the FZL worships at his effigy in Paola?
Issa tara kemm se jilghabu biz-zokra fuq l-estetika.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130309/local/police-question-four-for-breaking-the-silence.460748
Were they issued warrants of arrest? Why has Joseph Muscat not called in?
Keep strong! One day these corrupt elements of the police force will find themselves where they deserve to be, in jail along with their Labour buddies
I admire you Mrs Caruana Galizia for your courage in this matter.
It is because of people like you that fought for freedom of speech, social justice and basic human rights that Malta moved towards (debatable) democracy and not dicatorship.
Ghamel il-kuragg hemm hafna hafna nies warajk. Have a good day.
I am noticing that under the PL called in for questioning in the Times you can comment but under Daphne’s you cannot. Keath tal-Kasco still at it with the Times.
I hope for two things, firstly that this arrest warrant and ensuing events will end up in the international media well before the day is out and secondly the undecided who have not yet been to vote will seriously reconsider their position if they had intended to vote PL.
We do not want to live again the 70s and the 80s.
The PL cannot stop shooting itself in the foot, even at this hour, whilst voting is in process. Let us all go and vote for the retention of democracy besides other issues.
I never lived under the Labour government barring the two years between 1996 and 1998, but if Labour intend to bring back their golden days, I will pack and leave Malta, and work in another EU country. Thanks, Eddy.
PS: Tal-misthijja il-Laburisti u l-hmieg li ghandkhom. Dalghodu (xi siegha u nofs ta’ fil-ghodu kien ghad hemm il-billboard tal-Marsa bir-riklami tal – Laburisti).
ARRESTAJTUHOM?
This is the beginning of the end of Malta taghna lkoll.
As much as I disagree with your style in this blog, I would like to express you my genuine solidarity.
I agree with you, Daphne, that journalists should not be arrested in the middle of the night for expressing themselves and that this law is draconian and oppressive.
[Daphne – Thank you, Kevin.]
Nor should journalists be arrested at any other time of the day or night simply because of voicing their opinion, as is their fundamental right.
The media should have been up in arms this morning. Instead, some have ignored the incident and its ugly implications altogether. The Times referred to by Daphne as a possible instigator of intolerance of the timing of her opinion, suppressed reportage to the best of its ability, especially by failing to publish on line Daphne’s videoed press statement when she left the Mosta Police Station early this morning.
As with the Magistrate Herrera case that brought to the fore the unseemly behavior of members of the judiciary, the forces of the law there to protect fundamental freedoms have again been harnessed to suppress and to silence those who choose to exercise those freedoms.
Just this morning I received SMSes from Jose Herrera and Yana Mintoff asking me to vote for them.
If that is not a direct breach of the law I don’t know what is.
My reply: Inzabbab
If they used your number without your permission, you can file a report here https://secure.gov.mt/dataprotection/public/complaint_frm.aspx?mode=new
Me too. I wonder where they got my number from!
I wish there was a “like” button :)
So it took them few minutes to report your blog and almost 4 years to ‘realise’ that they should have reported the infamous blokka.
I too have no trust in the police and your ordeal reinforces my opinion that our police force can still be hijacked by a few senior officers that are willing to put the interests of their political and business patrons before anything else.
And since when writing a blog is considered a homicide? Maybe because your pen is killing Joseph’s hopes of becoming PM?
I sincerely hope it does. My vote will be your accomplice.
Daphne may I offer my 100% support and solidarity. The police action against you was totally undemocratic and is unacceptable today. We will no longer tolerate this abusive behaviour which we had to put up wih before 1987!
Michel Spiteri
ID 27270 (M)
Messhom jisthu li l-Pulizija li f’Jum il-Mara jarrestaw gurnalista.
Qed insiru bhal Iran u bhal fi zmien Mintoff meta missieri ssawwat minn partitarju Mintoffjan u l-Pulizija qalu lil missieri li ma setghux jiktbu rapport ghax inkella jinghataw transfer vendikattiv.
Dawn il-Pulizija ghadhom fis-servizz.
The PL in their frenzy to demand their pound of flesh from you, did not even realize that this incident gave the undecided voter another valid reason for voting PN.
Keep it up, Daphne. You are a woman (journalist) of substance.
I used not to like you Daphne, but over time I realised you speak facts and the truth, and now I admire you. OK, you side with PN but you don’t hide that so you have no hidden agenda.
You have opened my eyes not to be influenced with the new wrapping of Labour which underneath lays a party FAR AWAY FROM “Taghna Lkoll”.
We have been taking our freedom for granted….. hope that is not going to be compromised!
Dear Daphne
Although I don’t always agree with all that you usually write, today be assured of my FULL support.
I humbly believe I’m the only Maltese who can understand what you’re going thru’ now. Yes, I’m the ONLY journalist in the history of independent Malta (and maybe even before!) who has been convicted and jailed (for 3 months), for what he was responsible being published …and that was during the Labour ‘golden days’!
Libel should never be a criminal offence in a truly democratic modern country, and may I remind that this has been agreed upon by both government and opposition in the Re-codification and consolidation of Laws Committee.
I would have liked to express my full solidarity personally, but I could not contact you. If you would like, you can get my contact info from MediaLink, Victor Camilleri (il-mument)
Respect.
I suppose we could have the strange scenario where a whistleblower, although free to blow the whistle, could in the process be guilty of criminal libel.
When I saw the news this morning that they arrested you last night, we were not voting , but than we realised that they are arresting people and they are not yet in power, what are they going to do when they be in power, we already did our duty and voted for pn, for serhan tal mohh.
Nippretendi r-risenja ta min hu risponsabli ghal din l-oxxenita.
U ghadhom mhux fil-Gvern?
Ibqa cert li hadd fil-Labour ma ccaqqlaq minghajr il-kunsens tal-leader.
Truly disturbing – needless to say it’s back to the dark ages where people who have the gumption to stand up and be counted are harassed and subjected to Auschwitz terror tactics.
Personally you are to be admired for your tenacity albeit very bizarre circumstances.
My admiration.
Daphne’s arrest lights a RED alert for the right of freedom of expression. An emphatic NO to intolerance. A big YES for Freedom. A clear show of solidarity in favour of our fundamental rights.
Quite honestly disgusted – yesterday I was bombarded by Muscat’s face on each and every Google page I visited, on the Daily Mail website – HIS face, not just his party logo – I found this offensive – and if that is not continuing the PL ‘Campaign’ then what is?
Daphne – all kudos to you – you stood up and spoke the truth – and let the whole democratic world see what we are up against.
I stood outside 10 Downing Street in the pouring rain all those years ago protesting against Dom’s policies and fearful of the loss of freedom – by God, I will do it again… for the sake of Malta and my children’s future.
I have been unable to make up my mind who to vote for, throughout the entire length of this electoral campaign. I am one of the disgruntled nationalists not for any perceived wrongs to my personal interests but because I am put off by the PN’s arrogance, nepotism, corrupt cliques, stance on divorce, parliamentarian’s honoraria, spin and much more.
I would very much like to see Prof. Cassola of AD in parliament. I would very much like to believe Joseph Muscat’s fresh way of doing politics and message of political unity.
However, this clinches the deal for me. If Joseph Muscat really wanted to convince disgruntled Nationalists to vote PL, then he should have refrained from the political opportunism of the various no confidence motions presented in parliament and should not be hiding behind archaic laws which are morally wrong to persecute a journalist in the excercise of her freedom of expression.
This is not the live and let live, tolerant Malta Joseph is trying to sell to disgruntled Nationalists. The tactics have not changed since the 80s. I am not convinced of the timing of the various Cyrus Engerer investigations either or that the PN is always morally right.
The bottom line is that the PN has always had a vision for Malta and I fear for me it is a question of choosing the lesser of two evils and better the devil I know. I do not trust the PN and am disgusted by its scaremongering campaign but your arrest is reminiscent of the 80s modus operandi. I cannot risk living in a police state again.
Dear Joseph, it takes more than courage to vote PL, it takes insanity. Sorry, you had a brilliant electoral campaign going but a leopard it seems does not change its undemocratic spots.
PN it is once more for me.
No one should be happy to see the police force and the judiciary blunder in such style. These people are ruled by the law, but the law is an ass, as we know, and those who interpret and execute it are no better.
With political oversight long dead for fear of ‘political control’, our representatives will not stand up to these demi-gods. But will they at least face the law and amend it?
Incidentally, around a two weeks ago, Muscat said the so-called ‘day of reflection’ should be scrapped.
[Daphne – How fascinating, Kevin. Your wife Sharon Ellul Bonici is defending their action on Lou Bondi’s Facebook wall. But I am glad to see that you and I agree on this at least.]
You’re right, QISU BASSA.
Let’s have Ramona Attard stuff a microphone into his face.
‘Bzajt minn Daphne? Bzajt minn Daphne? Bzajt minn Daphne?’
BASTARDS.
A woman with balls if ever there was one! Thank you Daphne for constantly showing us Labour’s true colours. I’m more proud than ever to be voting PN.
I live abroad and had the option to vote last week, which option I took up. There was no day of reflection for me.
Patients at Mater Dei Hospital voted on Friday. These new voting regulations came into effect this time around, if I am not mistaken. Yet the law was not amended to cover this eventuality, because in itself it is puerile and impractical.
I too remember the eighties, and how scared we used to be whenever we heard a knock at the door after dark. Please, please do not let our children experience this, please.
“Jimxi qisu bassa”
That’s the one they nicked you for.
Look the walk is either due to overworked quadriceps at the gym or else It could be his thighs are too fat. Either way, some talcum powder might help ease the rubbing!
jekk jitilaw il labour inti tmur il habs
Malta Taghna Lkoll? Mhux hekk nibqaw! Isthi!
Comment of the evening. On election day.
Daphne I might not agree with all you write, but I sure will defend your sacrosanct right to be be FREE to express your views……whether they are deemed “agreeable” or not.
(Who am I, or anybody for that matter, to judge that?)
I am against censorship, and this immoral law must be repealed.
Well said Joseph Farrugia.
Jiena ‘insane’ ghax se nivvota Labour, izda nemmen li l-pulizija ghamlu zball kbir.
Tliet pulizija jitolbu l-arrest ta’ persuna fuq xi haga hekk zghira, ma taghmilx sens.
Seta’ mar pulizija wiehed, talabha biex ma tkomplix tikteb ghax kienet se tikser il-ligi..u ma kienx jinqala’ dan kollu.
This so-called “day of silence” is an INSULT to our intelligence.
As if everyone is going to shut up and follow Little Bo-Peep…!
We stand foursquare with you and with all those who “broke the imposed silence of the cemetery” and unreservedly condemn your arrest!
This is a purely and squarely a breach of human rights!
What I dislike in your comments is the crude way you criticise your political rivals.
You are wont to stoop too low in some of your comments and if others (from whichever political party they hail) do so, you should steer clear of them and exploit your erudition in a more positive way!
Alfred A Falzon
A taste of things to come… God forbid
Daphne, I’m four square behind you.
May your mishap serve as an eye-opener to all. Under those thugs, Malta will head to a totalitarian rule.
This is completely appalling. I am shocked and outraged.
Does Muscat think that politics is a game? DCG pointed out flaws and was arrested for it?
On what planet does he think this is okay? What age are we living in for this to happen – it is absolutely unacceptable.
Daphne, on this one you are 100% right and I congratulate you for being as courageous as you were to stand up for what you believe in.
Few are realising that hadn’t Daphne acted quickly by not letting the police in and by immediately alerting the media, all this would have taken a very different and maybe dramatic twist.
Hadn’t Lou Bondi been so quick to arrive with his camera, Daphne would have surely been dragged out and taken to the depot.
Can anyone imagine Daphne in the hands of the police on the eve of an election the PL is convinced it will win?
She may easily have fallen off the bastions.
Do not take this personally, Daphne, but I thought I had balls. After this, I think you are the one with balls here.
Keep up the good work and keep exposing PL’s filth.
I too lived those 16 long years under Labour and reading your ordeal I think that something terribly wrong is brewing.
Second video, coherent, sharp, uncompromised and absolutely in charge of the argument, the law and its meaning.
Trust Muscat to surrender to the old Labour way.
If Sant backed off from insisting on having the police drag JPO from the studio, Muscat did it.
His demons will haunt him, as long as you remain. They will implode. The country’s better than them.
You are such a brave woman. I believe we need more of your kind. Your story has uncovered the true colours behind the hideous slogan Malta Taghna Lkoll!
Back to the police state, but it will make us stronger and more resolute. Daphne, well done – you will be our icon going forward.
Who is this magistrate Dr Gabriella Vella? Hope she is as much efficient during her work.
Good point. She should have refused to sign the warrant.
Pico, as per the expression ‘un nome una promessa’
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Il%2DMLP+jinnomina+eks+spettur+tas%2Dsnin+%2780+biex+jirrappre%26%23380%3Benta+lill%2DMLP+f%27dawn+l%2Delezzjonijiet&t=a&aid=99845464&cid=19
I don’t like this.
prosit daphne
Issa naraw xi tkun ir-reazzjoni, meta jibdew jarrestaw ghal xejn b’xejn,lil dawk in-Nazzjonalisti li se jivvotaw din id-darba lil Labour, ghax jridu ic-CHANGE fid-Direzzjoni….IL-KBIR GHADU GEJ. Daphne, int mara ta’ veru. Kompli sejra hekk.
Daphne’s arrest was truly shameful. What a bloody backward country, with a law fit only for the Middle Ages, or for oppressive countries like China, as Daphne remarked.
We all know who was behind this.
We now have an even clearer idea of what to expect under the upcoming government.
The law is undemocratic and against the spirit of free speech and freedom of expression, and, added to this, somebody clearly abused of his power to have Daphne arrested.
Joseph being true to his fancy to China’s treatment of the internet.
Fight it with fake public opinion to then step it up to control traffic via identification of all users to close down blogs and put the owners under arrest.
Muscat’s article referred to the initial stages. Note his premise that things shouldn’t remain at the first stage only.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/01/joseph-muscat-holds-up-as-a-good-example-chinas-use-of-the-internet-against-foreign-manipulation/
This guy is on a different wavelength, and it’s not cool.
He’s got China on board. See him boast about his long-term agreement with them:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/128130324/Joseph-Muscat-says-he-signed-an-agreement-with-China-on-Malta-s-behalf-it-Torca-18APR2010
If proof was ever needed that the MLP of the 70s and 80 still lives and has ‘Labour cops’ embedded in the system, this is it!
They are not even in power and yet they bear down on a journalist whose job is to expose the MLP for what it is and not what it pretends to be.
The Police should be worrying much more about those individuals and political parties who send SMSs, letters and even phone calls to private citizens who never gave them contact information, much less permission to be contacted.
The past Nationalist governments sought appeasement which clearly did not work out.
It is difficult to find compromise with the ignorant, the lowest class and with lying politicians who prefer to shield criminals than have the balls to report alleged drug dealings to the Police, such as the state of the ‘police’ force happens to be.
Too late to do anything about it now, except for those weak minded who are still vacillating between abstaining or voting AD.
There are few hours left when an honest attempt can be made to ensure that the party of evil does not get its hands on power.
If the unthinkable happens, there will be many who privately will whisper ‘mea culpa’ but will cowardly distance themselves from being part of a 5 year problem rather than a solution overnight!
Kurag dejjem Daphne, we need you now more then ever before
According to ongoing news the police are now questioning some persons including Labour candidates on breaking the “day of recollection” rules.
Are these individuals being approached with a magistrate approved arrest warrant?
Too little and too late.
Intelligent persons will see that the ingrained methods of state-backed intolerance to opposition that we lived through under Mintoff and KMB are still very much alive.
A truly democratic European Malta does not need a change which means a reversal to these old practices.
That is just a sop. The PN has confirmed that it has filed reports to the police, so they have to do something about it.
I note that no arrest warrants have been issued.
Daphne, I would like to express my solidarity to you and your family.
I voted PN once more because I know that I only want one thing, PEACE OF MIND!
Well done Daphne, for your courage and determination to keep on going.
Oh look, they want to give the impression of impartiality.
I’ll bet they did not come and arrest these pleasantly plump Labour ladies with a warrant at night.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130309/local/police-question-four-for-breaking-the-silence.460748
I never thought the MLP were so dumb.
MLP true to form and this brings back so many happy memories of the 70s and 80s. How can anybody who lived in those dark ages ever forget?
Since this infamous arrest two Labour candidates have been interviewed by the police. However it appears that the circumstances of the arrests were entirely different.
Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Unfortunately, this is what you get, and worse, when you live in Malta.
In the UK, where we have freedom of speech, nobody gives two hoots if politics is discussed or reported in any media form the day before, on the day or the day after an election (or any other time).
We don’t have such archaic laws as Malta does.
It seems to me that Joseph Muscat should develop a thicker skin, or get out of the kitchen if he can’t stand the heat. His behaviour does not bode well for the future.
Agreed, he cracked. Follow the line.
Just to let you know that Google automatically delivers ads that are targeted to your content or audience. http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=9713
Yes, but the entity paying for the ad can tell Google up till what date such ad may appear – what do you think? that advertising proceeds indefinitely?
The police asked the PN to remove the ‘I voted’ app from mychoice.pn, while FB is full of MLP individuals, Musumeci, JPO, and Kevin Drake claiming that they voted for change (i.e. MLP).
There you go.
Also the I’m In community on FB is full of propaganda today
This is an eye opener to those who are prettily prettily thinking that it is time to change their direction, and to where? so that we get a flat in St John’s square?
I am voting so that I can sleep soundly at night!
I am voting so that I can go abroad without feeling ashamed to be a Maltese European.
I am voting so that Malta becomes more and more beautiful and clean and unique.
I am voting to secure my rights as a free man.
I am voting so that this island a jewel in the Mediterranean takes its place amongst the best.
I am voting so that I keep my quality of life.
I am voting PN because I want to retain all this.
God Bless Us All.
We should be blaming the Magistrate too. She had an obligation to protect you from this arrest. Why didn’t she?
This is an antiquated law which makes no sense in today’s world.
It is such a pity that laws like this are still on our statute book after all the idealism which inspired our nation when we managed to get out of the horrid of the early 1980s.
And this is not the only law which breaches our human rights, for there are many others.
The problem is that we do not seem to have developed the practical wisdom we need to realise that when a law is outdated and contrary to basic rights. We insist on sticking to its letter rather than the letter and spirit of our Constitution.
And when the courts strike laws like this down, our Parliament does nothing or very little to change the law to come in line, leaving us all in a vacuum.
The whole situation would have been considered as afarce, if it wasn’t an indication of what is to come with the upcoming ego-maniac dictator.
First they ask for the arrest of Daphne since the insecure dictator was offended, and then they try to make up for the mess and backlash by asking the same puluzija laburisti to pretend to arrest a few PL candidates to make it look as neutral.
At the same time the entourage of the dictator asks their media outlet, The Times, to highlist the fact that the PL candidates were ‘arrested’.
Daphne, keep it up – We were always behind you and now you know that even more! Thank you for your constant updates on your website and thank you for having a common sense that some just don’t have.
Matthew – You make me sick.
Thank you Daphne for speaking out about this, for being so smart and brave in the way you dealt with this.
This unpleasant event on Daphne must have cost Labour a few votes.
I dread to see them in power.
Alla hares jitla il-Labour. Hekk nergghu nigu, fis-sitwazzjoni li konna 25 sena ilu. Keep it up, Daphne, kellu bzonn il-poplu jqum mir raqda u jaghmel bhalek. Mara ta kuragg kbir.
Ejjew Nazzjonalisti morru u ivvotaw bi hgarkhom halli ir rebha taghna terga tkun u nkomplu mixjin fit-triq it-tajba.
Araw u harsu lejn il-pajjizi arab kif iddejqu mid-dittatorjat kif dejjem kienu tal-Labour.
Daphne, today PN gained my daughter’s vote. She really came to realize that all we had been telling her about the 80s was in fact no exaggeration.
Similar situation here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21722936
Malta, with a population of more than 400,000 people, is the smallest and one of the most successful economies in the eurozone.
I admire you. I would never be capable of refusing to go to Depot if the police turned up and then negotiate a deal to go elsewhere. You are truly a strong and determined woman.
Daphne is Malta’s iron lady. We are with you all the way.
Daphne – I admire you PROSIT!
Meanwhile, over at Imperium Europa:
“Follow up….
She cannot even speak Maltese, video reveals plenty
In my personal opinion but its easy for everyone to see with their own eyes, Daphne is just a another jealous women who clearly has the facial connotations of an Arab women and is racially motivated to attack Joseph Muscat because he is white and Arian by nature. It must be his blue eyes what pisses her off badly.”
[Daphne – Groan. ‘Cannot speak Maltese’ – dak ghax m’ghandiex accent tar-rahal.]
Not much of an advert for Aryan perfection, is he?
Not to worry. On Monday, Imperium Europa will greet the new dawn, as they rejoice with their Gahan Malti and his Chinese, Algerian and French black-beur Socialist buddies.
Yes, Joseph in a thong launching the javelin.
Ajjut.
@ She cannot even speak Maltese.
Assolutament mhux veru. L-ewwel darba li smajtha titkellem kien f’dal-video. Kif qalet Daphne, li titkellem bil-Malti (jew b’liem lingwa trid, jekk nigu f’dan) ifisser li tkun kapaci tesprimi ruhek u titkellem BIS-SENS.
Jien mir-rahal u meta nkun fl-ambjent tieghi nitkellem ‘bir-rahli’ imma nizen dak li jinghad mhux mill-accent imma mill-kontenut.
Il-kontenut ta’ dak li qalet Daphne, sew jekk bl-Ingliz u sew bil-Malti, mhux biss jaghmel sens imma hu ta’ l-ikbar importanza ghad-demokrazija u l-liberta tal-espressjoni ghalina lkoll.
Min qal li “She cannot even speak Maltese” juri kemm hu njorant u ma jifhimx, la fil-Malti u lanqas fil-lingwi.
Daphne, jidispjacini ta’ dak li kellek tghaddi dan il-lejl.
Int kont li dejjem tghatina lehen lillna, grazzi hafna u kuragg.
Appell sabiex nirsitu u jekk nafu bi hbieb u familjari li mhux ser jivutaw ghad fadal ic-cans.
Dak tal-bierah hu bis qatra mill-velenu lin ghandu il-PL ghal dawk li ma jaqblux mieghu.
In this sea of ignorance, narrow-mindedness, envy and foolishnes, I am naturally very wounded by what happened to you Daphne. I am equally saddened by the prospect of what this incident implies for our country.
At the same time your courage and levelheadedness in such tense and delicate circumstances makes me proud of sharing your values and fills me with hope for the possibility of the bleak future looming ahead.
I am convinced that the PN will actively support your cause. I am equally sure that all of us, irrespective of our level of commitment to that Party, will support you to gain the full democratic rights for our country.
It is ironic and so unjust that you, who have campaigned with your usual vehemence against the arrest of Alex Vella Gera, should find yourself arrested in similar legal absurdities.
It is even more ironic that while Labour conveniently found it so ‘progressive’ to challenge the law on the basis of freedom of expression they are today invoking that same law to gag YOUR and OUR freedom of speech.
I do not like at all some (or most) of the langauge that Daphne uses in her blog. However she can be, and sometimes is, a beacon for democracy and freedom of speech. What happened to her last night makes her “taghna lkoll” and “ahna lkoll” because the event of her arrest and how it proceeded, is a fundamental threat to freedom of speech in Malta. No political party should accept this state of affairs let alone instigate it or condone it.
Will it be back to the infamous 80s? It’s getting to look more like it. A leopard cannot change its spots
I am not bluffing but I know of 11 people who today voted PN for the first time.
Same in Zurrieq. Grannies don’t like him.
The problem seems to be the way he puckers his lips.
I watched and read all that transpired yesterday with fear in my heart. I, like Daphne, grew up in the black Labour years of the 70s and 80s.
I have always felt that behind that bland smile Joseph Muscat would just love to go back to the oppressive Labour government of those terrible years.
I just hope it is not too late!
I always considered this blog as being like a sitting-room in your house. People who visit this site are either listening or commenting in this virtual sitting-room.
Lou Bondi was there on the invitation of the Caruana Galizias who had the right to have their interrogation filmed. If the police felt uneasy about the cameras they’d better get used to it.
Lou and the other reporters did the right thing, and that was not interfering with (the generic description of) police work.
Police interrogations should always be filmed and the arrested person has a right for legal assistance.
Journalism is considered to be one of the pillars of democracy.
What we’re seeing here is like a drop in the ocean of what used to happen in the golden years.
Why did the magistrate sign in the first place?
Was there any statement about all this by (Malta’s) Press Club?
http://www.maltapressclub.org.mt/pressreleases.html
Forget it , they’re busy about the MALTA JOURNALISM AWARDS ceremony.
They’re like Nero playing the harp while Rome was burning.
I see why they didn’t make any statement….Daphne’s not a member.
Too shocking for words. And you handled all with steely cool. Well done and thank you
Daphne .. I applaud your courage. Let’s hope that at least 51% of this country has not completely taken leave of its senses and make sure we do not fall under the hands of these communist scum.
Daphne, you accused the Labour Party of reporting you in order to try and shut you up. You are right of course.
However isn’t the nationalist party guilty of the same thing if the report on the Times below is true?
“The PN confirmed it had made complaints to the police during the night.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130309/local/police-question-four-for-breaking-the-silence.460748
Dear Daphne,
I wish I were able to express my solidarity more fittingly. What happened yesterday was abominable and deplorable – a day of infamy that is likely to be the first of many.
Habla. — Spanish: “He or she speaks.”
It seems we will soon need a Hall of Fame for the HABLA award – “HArassed By LAbour” for exercising free speech, in an EU country no less.
Very best wishes,
B
Very proud of you for standing up for what is right and very sorry to not have been in Malta to vote.
Hopefully your obviously very upsetting experience, albeit horrifying, has opened many people’s eyes. Some good may yet come of it.
Police arresting a woman journalist when we were supposedly celebrating Woman’s Day.
Instead of some delivery boy with a bouquet of flowers (Mimosa), Daphne had three police officers with an arrest warrant signed by a woman magistrate, knocking at her door!
THE SHINING STAR OF MALTESE JOURNALISM – (with apologies to PSI).
– P.S. – You should keep this page high up on your Running Commentary for a couple of days – whatever the outcome – as a reminder of what WILL or WOULD HAVE happened.
Voted first thing this morning dressed in blue and was proud to pass through the police at the door.
Well f**king said Daphne.
Daphne, you are a true patriot with all the courage that comes with that word. Unfortunately very few can lay claim to this kind of bravery and to this word.
Well done and God bless you.
I believe it is also time to pray and even thank for this extraordinary enlightenment and reminder to have happened and perhaps penetrated for some just in time……!! Perhaps.
Go Daphne…
I never thought I would say this but I am ashamed of the majority of this country.
They were so brainless that they let three simple words and a new slogan brainwash them.
And now look at the result.