plato is far. more play. than 202250th anniversary. you know more you talk about a world who is being protected i'm asking you very simply who's protecting him i'm all. i keep on saying. i will keep on pushing for all the truth to come out after the murder of the prominent maltese journalist daphne carolina going to malta itself has become a byword for violence and corruption my guest this week here in munich is the country's foreign minister everest bartolo he says he wants to improve malta's tarnished image but how many more secrets have to come out before that will be

possible. ever aspire tall or welcome to conflict thank you you've made it clear that in the wake of the murder of stephany corona and all the corruption scandals that have followed that malta needs to rebuild its reputation that isn't going to happen until their body starts telling the truth is that i agree at the fact when i was appointed for and i 1st minister because they told me to go ahead and see what you can do i made that very clear not a beautician or a plastic surgery over there are a guillotine which have to be dealt with they have to be dealt with in malta contemptuous reality or not of the presentation of reality well we'll get into possibly what some of those dirty things are but i'm curious why former ministers like you supported a government that you knew was rotten to the core where when things started coming

out of the time of the panama papers for the last 16 i made it very clear that thought i'd accept a bit. but you say go on i stayed on. i had the choice. i admire savonarola but they had my go. more i had to i had the survivor strategy where i could fight another but there we used that experience to get there with got to do with of the party at the time and now he's in the democratic party to negotiate for things to make the government more accountable but your collective silence over the years helped cement in power a government that became a byword for corruption with conflicts of interest multiplying in the prime minister's office and the rule of law is seriously undermined and you went along with by staying in the government. they have said recently that perhaps.

it would have been wiser to resign in 2016 as a pressure to change things i acknowledge that but i have spoken even of the over the last 4 years against what you have just said because the big question of a lot of times and we get on to say that i don't think it was very very i don't think of it if you were to live in a small society more though you know that those the way i spoke and what i said was very very clear o.c. c.r.p. the highly respected organized crime and corruption reporting project i'm sure you know it they named joseph must get person of the year for 2019 an annual award that highlights an individual who has done most to advanced organized criminal activity and corruption in a given year it's a pretty shameful ward to the man you worked for isn't it but i've made it clear to him even in 2016 that it was going to be in his interest to take necessary steps

against those people in government who are involved with the money part of our papers and he didn't pay the huge price for it so how do you feel he deserves the award. i think i made it very clear to him that it was in his interest for a person to have contributed so much to economic growth to the introduction of civil liberties in malta and then to have his record painted with that weather doesn't excuse him for what he did later doesn't know just because the economy was booming you know of course murder and corruption were also new many of them to have made that also very clear that economic growth shouldn't come out on the expense we should have a can on the growth with rule of law and it can govern o.c. c.r.p. said that on the muskrats leadership criminality and corruption have flourished and in many cases gone unpunished creating an environment that led to the 27000 murder of tough knicker on the goalie if they knew that the same message was coming from other international watchdogs you had to know what was going on yourself delusion.

not completely and while i'm too and i'm not trying to get away from this. first of all one of the big problems that we have and again i'm not trying to explain it away is that in our small society. personal networks personal relations are stronger than institutional once and at the expense of the public. because unfortunately the rule of family or did rule of friends is stronger than the rule of law and this is an issue that we have to deal with and of come to a point now that we cannot delay taking all the necessary steps and more. so that's an outrageous assertion there isn't it when the government say the personal relationships are worth more than the rule of law but if you're in the government what's worth more is going to move more yes but in small societies i'm saying and there again i'm not trying to excuse anything in small island states like malta microstates which are not as the size of minnesota but one 3rd of its population.

it is true that when you look at the primary groups of friends and family and then the 2nd the groups or institutions should come in the 1st group and the 2nd group it's very porous there's no boundary between one and the other column saying is that in our societies it is a more formidable challenge to make sure that there is the rule of law that there are rules and there are regular joes who serve in government are expected to accept that challenge and run his ways although i agree a good one of the things you limited was that you didn't take a stronger stand in 2016 against the least one of those minister friends of the former prime as the comrade mitzi who'd been named in the panama papers your biggest political mistake you called it even so your behavior was inexplicable wasn't it you called publicly for mits his resignation but you refused to endorse the parliamentary vote of no confidence against him or because the way the motion

had been framed and then the amendments that were put to death made it possible for us to hold the government to my government to introduce measures to increase accountability there but in the end you helped to keep in office a man whose behavior in your home of you had been shot the new adequate mycenaeans your old my single vote to have made a difference had every was going to vote makes a difference on the bottom but not doesn't it not but not in that case with you where you have suppose you started in a very good you didn't stand for your principle hague i agree with you but i tried to use that to negotiate measures to hold the government to account now when it happened when she wasn't possible. well some measure started coming in but then when this time the new started coming after november i made it very clear that i was going to resign and they said either they go or i go and they made enough pressure for them to go. but the fact is that your silence and your continued

support of the former prime minister made you and your colleagues complicit in this dysfunctional corrupt system i tried to use internal pressure to get things done this time in november i told you remain a man was only m.e.p. called part of this swamp of corruption and financial. i try to do my bit i said i haven't done enough but i am committed to do all i can to because this is a very important time for us it's a moment of truth i would call it we have an existential crossroads since our independence 55 years ago we either get our house in order or we i think threaten our sovereignty and there were low for the move but there's been so many warnings like that before have and then they were ignored in 2017 your own chief justice silvio comey larry warned that instead of the rule of law malta was heading to what he called the rule of delinquents another that was enough to change anybody's mind

then wasn't warning in dark sharp terms like that. could be when when things start to become more clear for us because you might think that i'm trying to get away from what you're telling me but it's only recently that things became so clear to us what was happening i know that even in 2016 they warned that there was a shadow government and the network of decision makers that were that were influencing what was happening pretty to name names did you. might think it was clear who i was or fareed really it wasn't oh it's not going to 63 they think it was their unit leave given that the same people were still in government and still are part of the establishment. i made internal pressure and i didn't manage to get them from a difficulty that the whole system was in fact set up to to bypass independent scrutiny and prevent any kind of accountability wasn't it i mean the pit the prime

minister's office for instance took over responsibility for areas that presented particular opportunities for money laundering online gaming investment migration regulation of financial services it was clear that it was these areas were drowning in corruption and by the private getting the prime minister involved directly in them was keeping the regulators at bay wasn't it but i'm not changing i'm not i don't agree that all these activities and all these different economic sectors are rotten and corrupt there are definitely parts which are and where one of the problems i think that we had. irrespective of the share of human nature with design is the that there is when you have such strong economic growth and the regulators are not given enough resources or intentionally. to a certain his fans are skills intention to a certain extent yes but not all of them either but for example when it comes to

financial investigations those have been given a lot of resources i think the biggest problem that we have and the weakest weakest link in the chain is the economic crimes unit of the police and unless that is beefed up and really resourced with well qualified people of integrity this problem will remain because ultimately we're going to be judged on how many people are prosecuted not what i'm telling you now or what we say in ground in ground that's really difficult when the judges and magistrates were appointed by the prime minister was that were the case in a system described by the council of europe's parliamentary assembly as incompatible with judicial independence and the rule of law but i think this is not fair in this case for a very simple reason it does is government the appointment of magistrates and the judges have been more independent of the executive arm of government than ever before before the prime minister had talked to jurisdiction no it's not like that in a moment there is

a judicial appointment committee and we are intent definitely on taking the steps that the venice commission has indicated which once used to do so for not going on but we have started that i don't you see even in the last 30 that differ in the last week even sorry even in the last month apart from the last week sets have been taken for such implementing those recommendations under dinu prime minister in may 26th. when you said things were fine. they plainly weren't were they you said the government had already started in 2016 to introduce a culture of better political responsibility and transparency that wasn't true will you know it all struck those were the measures that i told you about here but 3 years later the the council of europe reported that major scandals were arising going unreported and uninvestigated for the 1st time we have we have introduced this is the contradiction of this government and of the most corrupt government as well for the 1st time we introduced measures to hold government to account that had

never been introduced before now where they were they were they weren't working or nuff but why give them away give them a free pass say a culture better political responsibility and transparency has been introduced then we have the palomar papers the electric gas the further hilman the further vittles global health care for the golden passport all all time and again featuring the same key figures close to the prime minister and the police in several instances mysteriously failing to act and none of that was serious enough for you to say you've crossed my red lines you've crossed the many many times i did see it entirely. and they repeated the weakest link was and still remains even no and we have to act about the economic crimes it because it's not enough to name people it's not enough to investigate them then you need to prosecute just about although you know much much more than you are telling them to do more than you've ever told

you no names you know places you know where the bodies are buried don't you. have you taken a vow of silence no i have it and if you are you afraid for you're alive one of them you're seen what happens to people no tell the truth and you know that you know there is a law that if there is anyone who has not taken a vow of silence. because i have spoken i have spoken up time and taken me to dance around the subject you make cryptic comments like justice can be served without fear or favor without burning this country to cinders and without burning or hurting those who want justice done what on earth does not mean it's not critical to the earth does it mean who is it addressed was addressed to my government but then they pull enough pressure for that change to happen you also their own facebook the country cannot protect murderers money launderers and other criminals justice has to be done and i don't really wasn't the country protecting these

people was it it was your fellow politicians and the royal servants like you were either turning a blind eye or actively perverting the course of justice and pushing for that to happen it still has to happen i'm pushing for that to happen just about all who exactly was and is protecting murderers in malta who 1st of all when it comes to the assassination of the cabinet ality we have. a judicial process going gone now because the alleged killers have been brought to justice but you know more than this don't you you know more than this i know more than this you know more you talk about murderers being protected i'm asking you very simply who's protecting them on malta who i keep on saying when i will keep on pushing for all the truth to come out but you're not answering my question i'm asking you i cannot give you not no course an abundance of because of their names why don't generalize to the

police if there are investigations i can assure you that i'm doing my duty and my only beings are the police. i'm doing my duty that i don't know what that means because you kept a 1000000 as i will who was clearly more corrupt than he should have been hugely so i will i will keep on pushing for all the truth to come out and they will stake my reputation and that how do we know that when you won't you know the judge you'll sit in front of the camera and he won't tell me what you want to be judged a would be trashed by what happens but it's this is exactly this climate of silence and these networks of criminal corruption that created a permissive environment and allowed someone to believe they could get away with the killing of definite corona girly and silence free journalism they have and will but they haven't got away with it they haven't coveted we have had political assassinations before and no one was brought to justice at least in this case we've started doing these things just isn't the end as story no it's not the end of the

story and it cannot be the end of the story that all the truth it's uncovered and bias by admitting that it isn't the end of the story you know that the story goes further and you know that this network that arranged for her assassination hasn't come to light yet has it but the phone says we have to keep on pushing for all the truth to be uncovered. we only have your word that you would do that with the tool it will happen to have the commitment of the prime minister of israel and the minister for the interior who has started taking a courageous decision but this investigation was tainted from the start with and to do the lives of those who know lost some of the council of europe one of the series of magistrate should have been taken off the case because of conflicts of interest likewise the investigating police officer false claims that sayed said were made by the minister of the interior about progress in the investigation if that's not an investigation tainted with all because it did give results and 11 important point

in all this is that there are other services involved including the europol so even if there are elements who want to cover up that information is available to the force beyond malta so that is a good guarantee that the whole truth will come out that nicaragua leads here didn't have much that was nice to say but you did see. december 26th in she wrote the tolo were decent and honest would be of stuck with the labor party since the 1970 s. of course not decent and honest people left in droves when they saw what was going on she's right isn't she and no i don't think so and i don't agree with her comment i respect what she has this done but i think she was very prejudiced against him and if you were decent would he have allowed himself to be part of muskrats power hungry bandwagon because there via and others worked it out from the outside he had to have known it from the inside that they were planning corrupt deals and i don't

agree with him because i did in my own little way and i'm not trying to. put myself in the in the role of a knight in the shining garment in my own little way i did what i could to train change things since i've entered politics and these problems that she's writing about she didn't try to leg up and the other part was in government i have tried to bring about changes in my own lives a look at anyone just corruptors your. idea but i beg to differ i beg to differ. she reported what she saw in front of she reported what she saw going on in malta the time she will be as by the way should try to. live for that i think is unfair and the baton but it's just about all if you want malta's reputation really spread a you're going to have to prove that this new government is better than the last one so for the sides are so far the signs are good no i don't think it's the other

car on the girlie there yourself the son of death he says musket is still the power behind the throne the huge networks of influence and fanatical support in the label bertie no i don't agree with matthew and the steps that have been taken during this month shows that there is a new good will to get things done really look no fully documented i would go himself and his family have been happy with the person who has been investigating the death of their of their money people that they did not they did not say the investigator was most corrupt so i didn't say i didn't say they did but look no further than the man with the new justice portfolio edward zammit described as a family friend of the muskets used to go on holiday with them but i can tell you again that the new subs that have been taken in the last month shows that there is a new good will we will be judged not repeat not but what you are saying now but what will happen in the next weeks and next month it really doesn't look very much

like it when the contract the government awarded a contract to disgraced former minister conrad mitzi the man you wanted to resign after he was named in the panama paper he was offered a job as tourism consultant on $80000.00 euros a year which had to be council rapidly after a huge public and if not i know you say this government done bad it was can sit here and so going to through public no pressure no i don't agree but why was he given his account contract in the 1st place you are supposed to be a legal rubbish a new broom sweeping up the corruption you bring in the one of the most hell. tell me the contract was done before before the change nothing that wasn't a contract signed by 100 new prime minister and without public pressure he would have kept you know not you totally disagree and they know what i'm telling you there was a lot of internal pressure and the board through the minister if you want a better reputation for malta

a lot of people are going to have to tell the truth about the corruption the murder and we've been pretty far from that aren't we especially given the continue attacks we're seeing on free journalism in malta you've actually taught journalists what they're going to allow that you know what their decks are for nuclear watchdog reporters without borders spoke last october of a hostile environment for independent. you're showing you don't leave us alone with their own journalists in malta and the prevalence of lawsuits to silence public interest reporting they don't know what they're talking about you know nowhere in the sense that i'm not saying that they don't know what they're talking but again you might find that this is contradictory but it's true we have liberalized freedom of the press and loss of tributed the press in the last 7 years we have decriminalized libel cases they are referring to a number of cases but too short to give the impression that that is rampant and that journalism in malta is in is in jeopardy or a risk is not fair malta is if you are in need for

a low if you are twaddle or what our journalists strike then it's very robust and very strong criticism of what goes on more to it says is unique among a few countries for having extensive political control of the news media the 2 main political parties own their own t.v. and radio stations as well as both the daily and weekly print media and online portals and the international center for press and media freedoms at the worst risk for malta was a lack of political independence in the media haywood again defend their reality of a microstate who are you why there have been excuse not just because the smiths trying to explain because whole how can you have a small newspaper which is viable in malta it's a there you either have a political party doing it or you have the state doing good business organizations don't don't find viable to have the media so on a slick it is a big challenge to try and understand how to have a media system in malta which is part of the checks and balances in

a democratic society but i repeat that is coming out of the reality of the microstate and it's not only more thought that has this dabs the most unpleasant aspect of your party has been its attempts to dehumanize stuff and occur in the glitzier not just while she was alive but after her murder. an undercover investigation into secret restricted labor party hate groups online published by the digital paper the shift showed labor party supporters celebrating her killing within hours of the crime being committed the journalist was described in the facebook post as an evil witch who should burn in hell are you proud of this part of your definitely not and it's still clearly an acceptable and they made it very clear that the hostel to lyrics have been totally unacceptable and i hope and i'm at least happy that in the last month even the national monument where

there is a memorial to her has not been disturbed at all and they really hope that nearer the solution is a little more in that they want to sell it as a great deal more moral not to celebrate them saying that that pleased that this happened and they really hope that very nearby there would be a monument to her for the word that she did the part that should be above to investigate who investigate them corruption these facebook groups were actually administered by and home to senior government and labor party officials at one point the prime minister himself former prime minister was part of it what does that tell you about your beloved global pirtle that part i don't like and it's part of the local political culture which is not nice of the local political culture to celebrate her assassination calling her relatives a family of animals and completely unacceptable but there are fortunately it's part of the terminology sometimes a local political culture which if something is used because the labor party supporters as well you don't have the all the way to deal to get

a new reputation with all this behind you have done to your room as i said you have to change change is painful but it will be more for you painful if we don't change every spatola thanks very much for being in for a cup of so thank you. the be. playing.

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lucky we may think cold water supplies will last forever. but they won't come up when the rain stops and starts march 20th on to w. . this is d w news and these are our top stories. u.s. president donald trump has announced he is suspending travel from europe to the united states for 30 days measure is part of the new american plans to fight the spread of coronavirus blamed the european union for not acting quickly enough to.