Message to government: how about registering the names of those who own Vitals instead?

#lessonsingovernmenttransparency (1)

The government wants the names of all those of us who own and/or edit news and current affairs websites to be registered with the government.

The government’s communications chief, Kurt Farrugia, says that this is in the interests of transparency and that people “have a right to know who is behind websites”.

People have a right to know who is behind the contract for the running of the hospitals they use, Mr Farrugia. People and their representatives in parliament have the right to be told – by your government – who owns Vitals ‘Global Healthcare’, the company to which Konrad Mizzi turned over a clutch of Malta’s public hospitals.

The government hides the real owners of that company by means of nominees in the British Virgin Islands, and then it comes at us with a twisted, Putin-esque law demanding transparency from those of us who are after you to reveal the real identity of those with whom it signed that corrupt contract.

But it won’t, because one of them is almost certainly John Dalli and there is no way that Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and Dr Egrant wouldn’t also have a part of that.

I have an idea: let’s have a register of corrupt politicians and corrupt ex politicians.

#bringbacktheguillotine

Kurt Farrugia, head of government communications: he says that a government register of ‘news websites’ will mean more transparency, but then fails to tell us who owns the company that is running Malta’s public hospitals.