I demand an explanation from the Poison Dwarf and his boss, Billy Liar
I have received this email, with the screenshot shown here.
This morning I was in court. While waiting, in an attempt to while away the [wasted] time, I tried to access daphnecaruanagalizia.com through my phone and this screen (attached) came up instead.
At first I thought that I had typed in the wrong URL, so I tried again, but the same warning appeared on screen.
This time I read it and, instead of pressing “Accept”, I typed in other URLs to see if this is standard, seeing that I was automatically logged on to the courts’ Wi-Fi network.
I tried: independent.com.mt – timesofmalta.com – maltarightnow.com – maltatoday.com.mt. At no point did the same message appear as it did with your site. Then for the hell of it I tried deliaonline.com – and that was allowed, too, without having to accede to any terms and conditions laid down by the Office of the Prime Minister.
Yet, when I typed in your URL one last time, those terms and conditions set by the Office of the Prime Minister appeared again.
OK, so all I had to do was leave the network, but that’s not the point. Why has the Office of the Prime Minister set these terms for accessing your website and no other via the law courts network?
Why should “the Court of Justice’s staff and its invited guests” be allowed unmonitored access to other news sites (on which they may comment without being monitored by the OPM), but then be presented with a ‘monitoring warning’ when accessing yours?
Also, it seems like it’s all right for the law courts staff to go to Delia for a Yorkshire pudding recipe online while on duty, but it’s not OK to read your posts mocking their boss, the prime minister.
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This is outrageous. I mean, really, it is.
Looks like with are on the way to Mintoff`s dark days back in the 70`s and 80`s.
Worse. In Mintoff’s time the sophisticated means that exist today for government to spy on us, were unknown.
Looks like MITA has new guidelines. Look out for international spies in our midst and report to OPM.
‘Ghax hemm bzonn bidla fid-direzzjoni’ qalulna fuq il-billboard. Issa fhimt x’riedu jghidu biha.
Push-backs and then change direction to no push backs, secrecy clause then no secrecy clause, the whole citizenship-for-sale scheme which they now will reconsider, and next up CHOGM and then no CHOGM. What a complete joke.
The boss of the law courts staff is NOT the prime minister. At least, I hope not.
[Daphne – He is the minister responsible for the law courts, yes.]
Of course the Prime Minister is responsible for justice. Remember how he took back the Justice Ministry from Manwel Mallia (that was after Labour had vilified the PN for having justice and home affairs under one Ministry) and he kept it under his wings in order to spite Hose Herrera and his faction in the Malta Labour Party?
Serious stuff indeed. What does the Chamber of Advocates have to say about this?
We were too reliable and consistent under PN, so we needed to change to haphazard crazy decisions which we then undo. Just for fun, to lose credibility and respect because it was getting boring.
The PL forget to tell us that their roadmap has an inbuilt navigator and their favourite function is ‘..Recalculating’
Something of a male midlife crisis.
Big Brother in the courts. Interfering with freedom of expression.
Probably, if the author of this note had pressed the “Accept” button, the Office of the Prime Minister would have received an instant message with all the access details.
Why should the Clowns at the Auberge de Castille police over our internet access on publicly funded networks which are publicly available?
Is this another case of abuse of power, where persons are monitored without reasonable suspicion?
This must be one of the freebies offered by China in return for a few passports.
Is it a coincidence that the language is Chinese? May be the programme was designed for China. Who knows!?
Oh I see, they are trying the whole big brother thing out.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131119/local/timestalk.495421
So Mallia confirms that the only way they could reduce electricity costs in 2014 is through more taxes or passports. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
“Addressing parliament, the parliamentary secretary announced that, due to space constraints, the administration was also looking at the possible relocation of the Lands Department.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/budget2014/Farrugia-flags-doubtful-encroachment-made-close-to-March-elections-20131119
Seems like the Lands Department will be the sacrificial lamb so that il-Guy can have his office (and Ministry) relocated within Valletta.
Second piece of the puzzle.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/magazinedetails/magazine/art/Fine-Arts-Museum-to-move-to-Auberge-d-Italie-after-all-20131120
“MaltaToday can reveal that following a meeting held between Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella and representatives of Heritage Malta, a decision was taken to move the Museum of Fine Arts, currently housed in Admirality House, South Street to the more central Auberge d’Italie in Merchants Street, as originally planned under the previous administration.
However, while the Museum of Fine Arts will be moved to Auberge d’Italie, a spokesperson for the Ministry for Tourism said that the Ministry and the Malta Tourism Authority – both of which are currently housed at the Auberge, will not be moving to Admirality House.
“A decision still needs to be taken on where the Tourism Ministry and the Malta Tourism Authority will be situated.”
Guy de Bavière.
Clearly a not so subtle attempt at stifling free speech, freedom of expression and freedom of communication. This is most worrying. Smacks of the internet censorship practised in the People’s Republic of China. Definitely requires further journalistic investigation and a full explanation from the Prime Minister.
Journalistic investigation? I am pretty sure that so-called journalists are besieging the Prime Minister’s office already, notably from The Times and PBS. And does anyone know of any explanation given by Muscat, let alone a full explanation, ever?
I have just filled the survey by BBC Global Minds on what freedom means for viewers and listeners of the BBC but it was too late for me to know about this episode.
I could have written that FREEDOM means my ability to access daphnecaruanagalizia.com, whenever and wherever I want with out any interference or threats.
Is the Kamra tal-Avukati concerned that exchanges by lawyers at the Law Courts, at least with this site, are being monitored by Castille?
Is our Prime Minister the same Joseph Muscat who was so agitated by ACTA? L-aqwa li “maghna tista’ ma taqbilx, imma tista’ tahdem maghna”.
The stakes have been raised. You are now fighting against a Labour government. Obviously we are in the internet age and the Golden Shield is a spectacular failure even in China.
What’s the surprise? It was expected. Actually I am surprised they put such a notice. But if such notice was not present, they wouldn’t be able to disseminate any information as threatened here.
But this is just intimidation to frighten people off this blog.
Being well versed in routers and such, the only info they can get about you is your mac-address, screen size, os, phone/pc/tablet user assigned name and other such technical stuff. There will be no way to identify user as long as the apparatus is not confiscated.
Obviously I against all attempts at stifling freedom of speech. However not being able to access this blog from public wifi has been going on for ages. I remember one time just after the refurbishment of St George’s Square in Valletta and I tried to use the free wifi there to access this blog but I could not get through because of the filtering that Mita was doing.
Ironic isn’t it. The very institution where one would go to obtain redress for the stifling of ones freedom of expression, stifling freedom of expression.
This is utterly outrageous.
It does not signal the end of this government, neither is it a sign of the beginning of its end.
It is most certainly though a shameful end of the beginning.
After only eight months.
With apologies to that greatest of statesmen WSC.
And whilst on the subect of democracy, suspension of;
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131119/local/government-wanted-to-call-off-all-local-council-elections-in-this-legislature-fenech-adami.495429#.UoxhUcTbPME
It doesn’t even occur to them that this would be wrong. (I hope). And that’s the problem with Labour. Any analysis of their behaviour must start with the assumption that they do not understand concepts like good, bad, decency, justice, democracy, etc.
Is it their fault? Maybe, but it’s not relevant. It makes them unfit for purpose.
In the run-up to the election your blog was not accessible over Vodafone 3G. I used to read it with Google Translate as a workaround. At the time I suspected an insider had purposely meddled with the system.
Same applied (and still applies) to GO. I never had such problems with Vodafone though,
You mean the Vodafone home internet service? It was never ‘blocked’ at any point on my Voda mobile.
This notice appears on every PC and laptop using the ministry of ‘Justice’ network. Basically, it demands that every user within the Ministry formally abrogates all rights to privacy. Probably, site administrators had already been monitoring all network traffic and someone pointed out the potential legal repercussions of doing this without users’ consent. How your website (and who knows which others?) came to be included on the proscribed list makes for fascinating conjecture.
National Socialists are all the same.
Bully all opposition into submission.
And then comes the PS responsible for ‘tejatrini’ announcing that there will be no more censorship on any theatre performance, but not in the courts it seems. Hawwadni ha nifmhek.
Tal-biki. Gawdi poplu ghax ghal hekk ivvutajt! Il-hmerija li jbati kulhadd.
In my opinion this is gross abuse of power and should be reported to the European Commission. Viviane Reding is the commissioner in charge of justice, fundamental rights and citizenship. Cecilia Malmstrom should also be informed since she is the commissioner in charge of home affairs.
Never thought we will be back to the 80s in such a short period, though I never doubted we will end back there. But that’s Labour for you. They only change for the worst. Worse still where foreign policy is concerned. They even managed to embarrass us more than ever before. The pimping of the EU passport sham has put us in the limelight for every conceivable wrong reason.
Shame on those who propelled these buffoons to power.
We can always rely on Marlene Mizzi to have a word with Viviane Reding.
U dan ghadu mhu xejn! il kbir ghadu gej. Jekk dan kollu qed jigri wara biss 8 xhur, mela x ser jigri kif jghaddi aktar zmien?
Look out! Big Brother is watching.
Will Gulag be the next stop, courtesy of the Malta Police Force under it its new Commissioner arresting/not arresting innocent people falsely reported to him by known/unknowns of committing the heinous crime of looking at their mobile phone in the sacred precincts of the airport, the law courts etc.?
Perhaps it’s the other way round?
It says that ALL traffic is monitored, not just to your site.
Ergo, perhaps someone wanted to warn the unaware.
Of course that anyone should actually have to worry about visiting your site is THE problem.
Only eight months ago this government was just emerging from a landslide electoral victory which gave it a huge parliamentary majority.
Now, and a litany of fuck-ups later, it is running scared of a blog.
Unbelievable.
That type of interface agreement has to be regulated by law before it can be applied.
And don’t give me national security.
They are befriending China so have to do like China does.
I imagine that just trying to access daphnecaruanagalizia.com from the law courts is sufficient to set bells ringing at Castille whether you accepted or not. I wonder how it works from the MCA Free Wifi network.
Oh I knew this was coming when the PL was elected. The individuals involved are truly incapable of anything better. They are very low quality and this was always obvious.
To switch from the PN to these scumbags you really had to have been shortsighted or ‘third world’ in your thinking. Too many people need to stop day dreaming and expecting to have all their problems solved through some minister or other ‘godfather’.
Unbelievable.
What are they scared of?
The TRUTH
Freedom of speech at its best.
At times I cannot access your blog on my tablet using the free wifi at Boffa hospital. It comes up with a message that the site has been classified unsafe by the provider.