This is just so wrong
The Maltese press is not known for doorstepping politicians and public persons no matter how important the matter. When Manuel Mallia said that he had half a million euros in cash at home, and claimed that they were from the sale of property (when Maltese law disallows property transactions in cash because of money-laundering provisions), no journalist stood outside the door to his home overlooking Hastings garden t challenge him about this.
They didn’t take the ferry to Gozo to tackle Anton Refalo’s absurd declarations, either.
Very serious things have been said and done, and they have made it only to the inside pages.
But this old man (83) and an accident he caused in a befuddled moment on his way back from the doctor cover most of today’s front page on Times of Malta.
Hit and run? The man hit a car, for heaven’s sake, not a person left for dead or injured. And he had spoken to the police already, so why and how is it news?
If he had been a drunk driver who the police are still trying to track down, then yes, we would have a news story here. But all we have in this context is the public shaming of an old man who, like so many thousands of other people, had an accident while driving his car. That’s why there is motor insurance and that’s why a large chunk of the time and energy of the administration of justice is dedicated to traffic sittings.
I don’t agree with this at all. It’s easy to pick on vulnerable old men, isn’t it, especially when they don’t hold back the tears visibly like Mrs Konrad Mizzi.
78 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
And I see that the man is already behind bars.
Times of Malta, get your priorities right, would you?
I would rather know about the outcome of Owen Bonnici’s accident. But then his was an ‘unfortunate accident’ and so they did not doorstep him.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140407/local/minister-to-face-court-action-by-the-police-after-traffic-accident.514001
Poor journalism at its best . . . !
Daphne a quick question. how does it work?
I mean, does the editor decides which ‘news’ to investigate in this manner ? or
its up to the journalists to decide whether a piece of information has some proper news value?
[Daphne – I think you will find your answer in the definition of ‘editor’. It is obviously not the staff reporters who decide what is carried.]
Who is the top ‘editor’?
What are his clients’ dictates?
How has this web been spun?
Who else is sitting in the parlour?
Enter Shiv Nair under connected title.
In that photo the poor man looks like he has no idea what’s just happened. He looks like someone who, while minding his own business, suddenly has a pack of ruffians at his door.
Very good at acting he is, Edward. A wolf in sheep’s’ skin.
It is wrong of this newspaper to bully the vulnerable while being a wimp and lackeys with the powerful.
Daphne this time I do not agree with you. Have you seen the video?
It was not a small crash. He must have been driving at quite a speed and in a narrow street.
He must have been tired and yes did not realise that he hit a car. But the car bounced several times and he hit his head against the car’s ceiling.
Obviously he was not injured as otherwise the story would have been different.
Imagine if the driver was a young one.
[Daphne – Yes, of course I watched the video. I am also perfectly familiar with the street. If the driver was young, I would have said exactly the same thing. A crash is a crash is a crash and a private citizen does not become a public person because of a crash. And in this case it is even worse because old age predisposes people to befuddlement and slow reflexes for which they cannot be blamed – unlike with young people, where befuddlement and slow reflexes are caused by long nights awake, drinking and drugs. Nobody died. Nobody was hit. Nobody was hurt. The man spoke to the police. He is insured. He admitted it and did not try to hide from reporters but spoke honestly. The owner of the other car will, through insurance, get her damages.
Last week an immigrant worker aged 18 died when the ropes holding the plank on which he was standing gave way. He died. Some doorstepping of the building site’s administrator would have been in order there, but instead we got the usual ‘it’s a tragedy but nobody’s fault’ interview with grieving family.
Malta: the island where cars are more precious than human life. People go nuts about the slightest scratch to their cars. It’s as though you scratched their child.]
Him being the Chairman of the industrial tribunal, doesn t make him a public person?
[Daphne – He is not the chairman of an industrial tribunal. I just looked that up and he resigned almost two years ago after a very unfortunate family incident. When you no longer hold a public post, you revert to privacy.]
A hit and run is a criminal act, but i think this person already had his legal advisors telling him what to say. Confusing almost going on the roof of a car and hittng a pavement doesn t make sense. Re having this news hitting headlines I totally agree with you.
A “hit and run” traffic accident that does not injure anyone, that only dents and scratches another car is a criminal act that does not interest the police in the slightest.
I have made some bad decisions in my time, and a few right ones too – one of which only a few months ago – to stop buying this worthless rag.
As for the Classified I sneak a peek from the old woman’s in the flat below who gets it delivered on weekends and it lingers some hours downstairs before she’s up to fetch it. Sorry Austin, but rubbish is rubbish – whatever you choose to call it.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140809/local/updated-83-year-old-admits-hit-and-run-in-lija.531095
Exactly why is this newsworthy? The Times of Malta really hit an all-time low. And I won’t even start about the comments posted below the report.
But the worst thing here is that this story is plastered on the front page.
I – and, like me, many others who have been in circumstances similar to mine – knew George Borg Cardona for several years when he was a senior civil servant.
The expression ‘hit-and-run’ certainly does not, in any way, fit the gentleman’s good manners and courteousness.
As you said, Daphne, he happens to have had an unfortunate (and certainly minor) traffic accident – which, presumably, made him panic initially, but later helped him to explain the matter to the police himself.
Still, front-page sensationalism to foment petty gossip appears to be the newspaper’s bread and butter.
Sorry, I don’t agree. If it weren’t for the CCTV footage he would have tried to get away with it. The damage caused by the accident wasn’t exactly a minor scratch either. He’s trying to pull wool over people’s eyes saying he didn’t realise he hit a car.
[Daphne – That is not the point. Even if it were as you say, that is neither front page news nor reason for a journalist from a top newspaper, accompanied by a photographer and/or a cameraman, to doorstep an individual of whatever age at his home. It is not news at all. If somebody had died or been maimed, then yes, it would be.]
If he would have maimed somebody who might have been sitting in the car at that particular moment he still would have run away from the scene. It is by coincidence that there was nobody in the car. So what is exactly your point?
[Daphne – The point is that minor car accidents are not even reportable news, still less front pages news involving a journalist and cameraman sent to doorstep an individual.]
His explanation does not make sense at all. If it does to you then you will have to admit that you surely must be seeing a similarity between a car and a pavement.
[Daphne – This is not a discussion about his explanation. This is a discussion about whether minor car accidents should be reported. They shouldn’t, still less on the front page after a doorstepping exercise by a journalist and a cameraman. This was a MINOR car accident. Get a sense of proportion. There are hundreds of cases at the Traffic Sittings hearings at the law courts – hundreds.]
The only explanation for this vast front page reporting, may be that this 83 year old driver is not a Government Minister.
We still don’t have a police explanation why an official report is not forthcoming regarding Owen Bonnici’s not so minor traffic accident resulting in injury, or whether any charges will be laid, and if not, why not? Is the acting Commissioner all that busy?
Sorry Daphne, I cannot agree with you about all this. The Peugeot in question ended up with a damaged wishbone, a bent front wheel, a smashed front bumper, a crumpled mudguard and front and back passenger doors.
[Daphne – Ah, so you are somehow involved with the owner of the car, then, otherwise you wouldn’t have this level of detailed knowledge about the damage. You should have said so at the outset. It was dishonest not to, especially when you are accusing others (anonymously) of dishonesty.]
This guy literally rode along its side on 2 wheels and kept on going regardless of the possibility that their could have been people inside the Peugeot. He admitted his fault not because he somehow regretted his “hit and running” but because he was summoned by the police and confronted with the CCTV. Which was when, this villain, in order to exculpate himself, had the cheek to come up with the story that he had mistook the car for a pavement. And all this, coming from an ex chairman of The Industrial Tribunal.
[Daphne – I would calm down and tell your daughter/sister/girlfriend/friend/whatever that it is just a car and not terminal cancer. It is really important to have a sense of proportion. Anger is fine and understandable, but when the matter is sorted, as it has been, it’s time to take it down a notch. People who get so upset about their cars are lucky: it means they have no real problems and never have done.]
Shocking that this newspaper will do anything to grab the headlines, never mind the lack of newsworthiness or the right to privacy which our courts have not even begun to explore.
This is really stooping low.
Why don’t the reporters investigate why the MLP does not want to publis the H&P contract?
Why don’t they investigate why the MLP is suddenly so rich?
Why don’t they investigate why Joseph Muscat is on such good terms with John Dalli?
Why don’t they investigate Muscat’s visits to Libya and China before the general elections?
Why don’t they investigate what kind of voters Joseph Muscat was targeting by bringing on board Manuel Mallia?
Why don’t they investigate how government ministries are being turned into customer service departments with long lines of complaining constituents out for pjacieri?
Why don’t they investigate how the MLP’s crusade against Arriva left us with a complete mess and with taxpayers now having to foot the bill for the incompetence of a minister who until a few years ago wasn’t even good to make photocopies and tea at an office, not to mention the latest Spanish scandal and the fact that he should have resigned because he failed on the oil-finding promise?
Or the miraculous rent by the GWU of their worthless property to Transport Malta and ARMS?
Why don’t investigate why the government dropped the case against the Labour Party to reclaim Australia Hall?
Why don’t they doorstep our PM to ask him for the real reason why he wants to suspend local council elections until after the next general elections are over?
Perhaps they could first ask if he had a word with FKNK about this idea?
Why don’t they investigate the takeovers within the Civil Service, MEPA, the Army, the Police Force, and now Bank of Valletta and the judiciary?
Why don’t they investigate why our PM gave an amnesty to the electricity thieves?
And who are the “big fish” that he promised to catch?
Why don’t they investigate the connection between the cash-for-passports sale and the recently announced investment registration scheme?
Why don’t they investigate why the MLP is driving Air Malta to the wall after the PN had brought it back to a viable state (by Dr MJ’s own admission)?
Why don’t they investigate how many people have been employed in the public sector during these past 18 months and who they are?
Why don’t they investigate how much the MLP backbenchers, Super One stooges, and MLP activists are earning?
Or the entire power station and LNG tanker scandal?
Gosh, let’s pick on this old man instead – cowards and men of straw.
You don’t blame Times of Malta. Ever since Arriva was politely forced to get out of Malta, Times of Malta noe needs to turn to stories of this sort to fill its front page and the letters section.
right but is this man related to dr. andrew borg cardona? if he is then i think you should make a contingency for perceived bias. as a sidenote – yes it certainly is not headline news.
[Daphne – I don’t know George Borg Cardona from Adam and I would have said exactly the same thing if his surname were Borg without the Cardona. I have no idea whether he is or isn’t related to Andrew Borg Cardona, and that is quite apart from the fact that I hold no brief for the latter. There are very many people called Borg Cardona several of whom, incidentally, vote Labour, and many of whom do not even know each other.]
And they send a journalist with a video camera for the online version. Ridiculous.
On the subject of the terrible standard of journalism in Maltese newspapers, did anybody catch the story on The Malta Independent online about German media making fun of British tourists. It ended with the following paragraph:
“It also ridicules British cuisine, binge-drinking, fashion and sport, says that “athletically they are not up to much, they can’t even take penalties” and points out that Austria and Switzerland – the hosts of this summer’s Euro 2008 football championships – will be largely British-free zones this year as no British teams have qualified.”
The editor must have finally woken up and seen that his staff were publishing 6 year old stories. It has disappeared.
Do I get a prize for guessing he votes PN?
Nothing to do with politics Mr. Ball, just plain incompetent editorialship.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw the doorstep video interview, with the amoral journalist deplorably attempting to provoke and shame the poor man on camera. Il-vera imbarazz.
Reminded me of those Stricia La Notizia bits where the journalist would persistently and deliberately annoyingly follow a selected victim, with the difference of course being that the ‘victim’ was normally a politician, or a regular citizen who was caught on camera regularly engaging in abusive and illegal behaviour – such as a doctor recurrently groping his female patients under some pretext.
Putting this story on the front page is just flabbergasting.
The ‘Times of Malta’ , in my opinion, should have swapped their Page 2 with their front page. Here is the Times’ Page 2:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140809/local/Illegal-parking-persists-in-Merchants-Street.531101
The Times of Malta has been going down the tabloid way for some time. The Malta Independent has embarked on the same route, unfortunately.
Great professional journalism here – courageously chasing some of Malta’s worse criminals and tracking them down to their lairs.
Times of Malta should be ashamed for putting a face to this old man’s mistake and even worse for making it front page news for the whole of Malta to gossip about when he’s a private person. This just goes to show how low this paper has gone.
I’d like to see that reporter knock on the door of some hardened criminal who’s just got out on bail, or some renowned usurer. I would love to see some Times of Malta footage of that.
Seems like somebody at Times of Malta has a chip on his shoulder against this Mr Borg Cardona. Maybe it was some ruling he gave to upset them when he was chairman of the Industrial Tribunal.
Għadni ma nistax nifhem, għalfejn dan is-sinjur , x’ħin fetaħ il-bieb/tieqa u ra minn kienu, ma qabadx u għalaq il-bieb/ tieqa f’wiċċhom. La kien mar għand il-pulizija diġa, ma kellux għalfejn jagħti sodisfazzjon lill-ġurnalisti. Tgħid ma kontx inkun jien u noqgħod nispjegalhom x’ġara!! Għandhom xi cans! Miskin sabuh beċċun.
Reading the headlines one gets the impression some one was seriously hurt when in fact no one is. As Mrs.DCG says, he is insured, he spoke to the police and the only petty offence is failing to stop after an accident.
In this instance no one was hurt and third parties are covered by his insurance.
In no way does this article merit a full front page report. The paper’s editor needs to get a grip.
Petty offence? If he would have driven into your car and failed to stop you would be seeing things from a different angle.
It happened to me, twice in the same day. I opened an insurance claim, got paid and it ended there. The story never made the front page of any newspaper.
The Times is thrilled with its ‘investigative’ report. It’s a lot easier to track down a car in Attard than to find out who this government is sheltering and why, to say nothing of its backroom deals with dubious regimes.
Times of Malta’s daily edition seems to have no visible or responsible editor; the newspaper looks, feels and reads like something cobbled together by individual reporters all with their own particular agenda and editorial line.
We want to read about Owen Bonnici’s more serious car accident and the status of the inquiry on an assault on 4 police officers in their own station that was hushed up.
Le għax dawk mhux fl-interess tal-poplu!
It has been hijacked. The writing has been on the wall for a while.
Why do people keep on buying this rag? The time when it was the most reliable local source of news is long ago.
Can’t agree more.
Driver at fault no doubt, but why all the fuss.
Cause he is trying to pull your leg, my leg, and all the legs lying around by recounting that he mistook the car for a pavement.
[Daphne – You sound as though you have a personal agenda. Who cares? I mean, really, who cares? The owner of the car cares, obviously, but should we? No. There are enough car accidents to keep every insurance office in Malta busy and the Traffic Sittings hearings at the law courts clogged up day after day. Are you going to become personally involved in each one and demand information on each? I once returned to my car to find that the headlights had been knocked out by somebody probably driving a tank-sized vehicle. I just filed an insurance claim and got it repaired. I didn’t go to the police and demand a man-hunt for the perpetrator. And I certainly did not go to the newspapers. What would have been the point?]
Personal agendae have nothing to do with all this, Daphne. I do not know this guy and do not have any wish whatsoever to get to know him. Sincerely, I do not see any reason why you should be making such a fuss because The Times decided to paste his face on the front page. This ruffian deserves it, Daphne. Deserves worse than all this.
[Daphne – Please don’t be so hysterical. We could take you more seriously if you were to declare your interest. You keep saying that you don’t know the man, but never mention whether you know the woman. Ruffian, indeed. Do you actually know what the word means? I don’t know either of those two people incidentally and have never met them – I am an impartial observer.]
What bothers me most is that a news item, carried with such prominence results with, unfortunately, people speculating, insinuating and in some cases downright insulting comments.
We are meant to be a civilised society, we should respect the elderly and the less fortunate. Unfortunately we are not or we do no longer bother the true values that our fathers and forefathers have for generations passed on.
This is the sad truth, and esteemed newspapers like the Times should realise this and not resort to sensationalism to attract readers. The Times is not a tabloid newspaper, trashy newspapers resort to such tactics. Thank you.
If it had been your car you would not have been writing all this, Mr.Said.
All the time you are ‘iffing’ nev.
You do know what hypothetical means eh?
Any persoanl agenda/interest?, do let us know.
Reply to watchful eye. Since you ask me I do not have any problem to tell you that I do not have any personal agenda at all against this person. Not a little bit of it. I have never known him and do not even wish to get acquainted with him whatsoever. The point that I am trying to get into that head of yours is this Mr. watchful eye……….THIS CHAP WHOSE CALLOUS ACTIONS YOU INEXPLICABLY ARE TRYING TO GLORIFY COULD HAVE CRASHED INTO YOUR CAR. I AM MORALLY CONVINCED THAT IF IT WERE SO YOU WOULD BE SEEING THINGS FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE. A VERY DIFFERENT ANGLE FROM THE ONE YOU ARE PRESENTLY INCLINED TO SEE THROUGH.
[Daphne – You haven’t answered the question as to whether you are somehow connected to the woman whose car was damaged. You sound highly emotionally involved. Nobody sensible would describe a car accident or even fleeing from it as ‘callous’ unless there was a dead body or injured person involved.]
Bullies are strong with the weak and weak with the strong.
Times of Malta: strong with the weak and weak with the strong.
I have just seen the video interview. I now ask Times of Malta’s editor if he can dispatch some of his bully journalists to Paceville to interview some of the bouncers there about their attitude to certain foreigners, their arrogance, their lack of licences, their adherence to opening or rather closing times etc etc etc.
And while they’re about it, they can harass some restaurant owners along the Ferries and Gzira promenade who have taken up (illegally) not only pavements but even parking spaces. Cowardly squirts.
As suggested by Chico, whilst the Times of Malta journalists are at it, would they interview Charles Polidano (ic-Caqnu) regarding how he is managing with all the MEPA enforcement notices notwithstanding his written apology, some time ago, to Joseph Muscat.
Could have been your car, Chico. If it was not for the cctv the woman on the receiving end would have ended up empty-handed.
[Daphne – No, she wouldn’t have been. If she is comprehensively insured then she would have been out of pocket only by the ‘excess’ fee paid on making a claim. If she is only third-party insured, then it’s her problem for making a false economy. Motor insurance exists for just such eventualities.]
Sincerely, Daphne, I never expected this kind of reasoning coming from an intelligent person like yourself. Not in a thousand years. Instead of condemning the culprit you are inexplicably trying to play down this whole event and subsequently finding fault with the party on the receiving end. Unbelievable Daphne.
[Daphne – It’s called imaginative empathy, nev: the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and understand. And interestingly, I speak as somebody who had my car damaged a few times by people who didn’t leave a note. It’s also an ability to separate the issues: the man’s ‘guilt’ and the story’s news value. My post happened to be about the latter, but you simply didn’t pick up on that. God help us if people who hit a car and move on were to become front-page stories routinely, hunted down by ace reporters and cameramen. And for somebody who claims not to know the person, you sound very involved. I actually asked you whether you know the person whose car was hit and not whether you know the person who hit the car.]
I do not agree with you on this one. Insurances tend to not provide full cover for cars that have been on the road for a number of years. Sometimes, it is not because the person wants to pay less per year that they have 3rd party only, but because the insurance will only allow that cover.
[Daphne – That’s not the case at all. It all depends on which agency and whether you have insured with them regularly. Many people in Malta do not insure their cars comprehensively, and that is why they act as if it is the end of the world when they have an accident. It really is a false economy.]
Amen.
Times of Malta is a newspaper in “English”, so how is it the service in Maltese?
Most probably the parked car had its front wheel fully turned outwards, and Mr Borg Cardona’s car wheel on the passenger side gripped the wheel of the parked car.
I would like to see the Times of Malta reporter who bullied this old man doorstepping and asking the butcher who is accused of shooting “il-Kohhu”, whether he was involved in the killing of the meat trader in Ħal Far, or at least ask the police whether the same gun was used in both cases.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130219/local/man-being-questioned-over-yesterday-s-murder.458326
In just a few years Times of Malta has been reduced to a rag.
Totally agree.
The Times of Malta editor should be ashamed.
Does he not realise the stress he has put on this person for no reason other than create sensationalism in the hope of picking up sales.
The Times is no longer what it used to be. It’s become a rag.
This chap, whose actions you chose, for reasons known only to yourself to defend, did not give himself up. Not all. He was summoned by the police after his number plate was given to the police by an informer. After which, instead of admitting his fault he callously and viciously came up with this silly story of his recounting that he mistook the vehicle for a pavement.
[Daphne – Tell me, was it your daughter’s car? Is he somebody you know personally and don’t like? You are clearly not a neutral observer. Callous and vicious indeed. What words would you choose, then, to describe the actions of that drug-dealer who murdered his own sister’s 20-year-old son by luring him to a field then stabbing him repeatedly, shooting him and finishing him off by hitting him with a tile? People like you just make me sad. No sense of proportion and no sense of empathy.]
Since you ask me I do not have any problem at all to tell you that I DO NOT KNOW THIS CHAP. This is not a question of liking or not liking this somebody.
Sympathy has nothing to do with all this. We have here a situation where a driver extensively damaged a parked car and cowardly kept on going.
This chap whom you sadly enough for reasons known only to yourself you somehow chose to repeatedly commiserate, did not at any point in time regret his actions.
This chap decided to spill the beans after he was summoned by the police. With nowhere to go and nobody to run to, instead of calling a spade a spade, like any honorable man would have done, he went on record insisting cheekily that he had mistook a car for a pavement.
Which story, you surely give me the impression that you seem to fail for some reason or another to discard and reject. But I do not blame you for that. Not a little bit. Could be the case that you believe a good portion of it.
[Daphne – Yes, I happen to give him the benefit of the doubt because he is 83 and ill and was on his way back from the doctor, and because I have known people in their 20s to drive right onto roundabouts and not notice. And that woman the other day drove right into the sea with her 16-year-old son in the car because she pressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. People do not do these things on purpose. When it happens in broad daylight it should be obvious that they have been overcome by something. When you’re 83, we’ll talk. I just happen to think it’s ridiculous the way Maltese people behave as though their cars are their babies. How often have entire roads been blocked for hours because some idiot is insisting on calling out the local wardens because of a one-inch barely visible scratch on his car bumper?]
I personally know of two similar incidents: one a hit and run exactly like the incident in question, where the driver was caught later, after first denying; another where the driver overturned the car (but luckily was not seriously hurt.) Quite appropriately, neither case made it to the papers. Why make this latest case front page news? It’s the pits.
The problem at Times of Malta is that some of the journalists there have such an inflated ego that they think it’s about them and not the paper they work for.
So they are in constant competition between each other on who gets the ‘best’ story – this is what is pushing for so much sensationalism in most of their ‘stories’.
Another case in point was the story about Agatha Barbara’s letters. In the midst of so many real scandals in Malta and world turmoil, The Sunday Times’ front page is dominated by three anodyne letters Agatha Barbara wrote in the war. Goes to show.
Well, they can always take their inflated egos towards hardened criminals and usurers. They can show us their mettle there. And as you said, same with Agatha Barbara’s letters. I’m afraid The Times has turned into the opium of the people.
Ok i agree that the item was not of news value, and definitely not front page one, but what if we shifted the discussion to whether drivers aged over 80 ( incidentally my dad is too) should be driving, if as you said yourself, these have slow reflexes, to say the least?
I am sure this would have made for more interesting reading. I mean, true no one was hurt, luckily i add. But what if someone was in the car, or in its vicinity?
I mean a driver who mistakes the pavement for a car (after he has just hit said car) surely should not be allowed anywhere near a car.
[Daphne – I know people over 80 who sharper reflexes than people my age. More accidents are caused by drivers aged between 18 and 25 than by drivers over 80, which is why the motor insurance premium for drivers in that age cohort is much higher than it is for those over 25. Should we restrict driving licences to people aged over 25, on that basis? Obviously not. There are mechanisms in the law which allow for the suspension of a driver’s licence by the courts, on an individual basis, which is exactly as it should be. Most older drivers know their limitations and are cautious, for example, by not driving at night.]
I beg to differ. More accidents are caused by drivers aged 18 to 25 because there are simply much more drivers aged 18 to 25 than there are aged over 80.
And about being cautious and not driving at night, this case is again not a good example, as he was in fact driving at night.
Can the journalists from the Times of Malta (li tant ghandhom qalbhom tahraqrom) investigate this case?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/42126/no_evidence_to_suggest_anything_criminal_in_caf_premier_acquisition#.U-dDrPmSzfI
Honestly, we have not got real investigative journalists – instead we have amateurs who are content to cut and paste press releases, report incidents and replicate comments and interviews without the relevant opinion they may have deduced by all that.
If we had more investigative journalists, in this case, they may have noticed that the car which was hit was facing oncoming traffic ( an infringement) and also was parked outside the statutory boxes.
So why was no action taken?
This is the pseudo journalism that makes it possible to have an amoral lot running the country.
It’s a mix of cowards who think of themselves as journalists and a lot of underhand appeasing. So instead of pursuing the proper stories they seek glory through cheap gossip.
I mean take Reno Bugeja, who touts himself as the essence of journalism – he had the Prime Minister for a one-to one interview about Malta’s EU membership and he fails to ask him the only logical question that there was.
Wow. Front page news in Malta:
An old man at the wheel accidentally hits a parked car: almost the entire front page.
Some library books go missing: the rest of the front page.
And not a word on Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the elections in Turkey, domestic political issues or government performance. The Times is now officially a tabloid. Sorry, Saviour.
Nor any word about the messes Malta’s government is getting us all into.
This is real investigative journalism: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-10/news/case-of-german-child-abductions-in-gozo-6154354688/
This is hit and run, he thought he hit the pavement , who is the idiot doctor who certified him capable of driving, he could easily have killed a child and told us he thought it was a cat.
his ability to drive should be reviewed.
Something more important the TOM could have done…. between minute 06:56 and 07:10 there seems to be an aerial shot of the new road in progress on Comino. You can also see a bulldozer / roller moving along.
http://vimeo.com/92084410
It is so difficult to find out who built a new road on an island with such restrictive access.
Taghna lkoll.
This Manwel Mallia was not investigated by the income tax? Also does Europe know that this could be money-laundering from the minister of the interior for Christ’s sake?
Or even in Europe some men are more equal than others?
I agree totally with Daphne. Definitely not front-page news and it is definitely not on to have the guy’s picture splashed across the front page. He was identified, authorities informed and it ends there.
I also think that having the picture of the man accused (so far he has not been found guilty) of abusing his Indonesian housemaid on the front page was out of line.
The editor-in-chief is feeling sorry now:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140811/blogs/editors-blog-did-we-treat-elderly-man-fairly.531430
Parked car at helipad prevents helicopter from bringing patient from Gozo.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140811/local/parked-car-prevents-helicopter-landing-on-hospital-helipad.531346
Matthew Xuereb of the Times of Malta hasn’t found the culprit yet.
Here is a story for an investigative journalist to look into.
On the basis of probability, three fires on bendy buses in one week was mostly likely sabotage. If they were really due to technical faults, they would have happened over months and not in a single week.
In deciding to force bendy buses off the roads, what advise was Minister Mizzi given? By whom? Given that sabotage was a possibility, why did government take a rushed decision on the bendy busses? A technical report on one fire was prepared. Why is the government not publishing all the report?
When government decided to prohibit bendy buses, did it consider all the implications like for example the lowering in the standard of service with more waiting times, more crowding and greater discomfort for passengers? Was the increased cost to try to address these deficiencies taken into account?
With the deterioration of service these past few weeks, this is a very topical issue.
– Sir, we’ve been sabotaged!
– Who shaid anything about shabotage?
– Captain!
– Sir, I’m afraid the doctor is right.
– Very well. Shurfashe. We’ll evacuate the men to the deck.
Immortal lines, eh?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-11/leader/transport-the-only-sensible-option-6166740992/
What a load of rubbish.
Apart from cost, people will not use an underground transport system because there is always the use of own car as a viable option. The number of people who will use it will be a fraction of what will be required to cover operational costs, let alone the capital investment.
Instead of questioning the wisdom of government forcing Arriva out, the Independent editorial confuses the issues by suggesting a solution that is not feasible and which will never happen.
We had a solution in hand – public transport operated professionally by a non-Maltese operator.