it's finest. until the day i mean it. is still not done deployed. april 8th. you know more you talk about murderers being protected i'm asking you very simply who's protecting them on the who i keep on saying. i will keep on pushing for all the troops come out after the murder of the prominent multi-use journalist. motor 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 to low welcome to conflict so thank you you've made it clear that in the wake of the murder of nicaragua 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 it very clear i'm not a beautician or a plastic surgeon have there are a glib things which have to be dealt with they have to be dealt with in malta in terms of the reality or not of the presentation of reality where we're getting to 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. well when things started coming

out of the time of the panama papers of last with 16 i made it very clear that thought i'd accept the bill. but you say well i stayed on. i had the choice. i admire savonarola but they had my. mortal i had to i had the survivor strategy where i could fight another but did we use that experience to get there we've got to do with of the party at this time and now he's in the democratic party to negotiate 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 or seriously undermined and you went along with the by staying in the government. yes i 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 it is the big question of a lot of. moving i will 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 there was 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 made it clear to him even in 2016 that the tours going to be in his interest to take the necessary steps to get those people in government who are involved with them on

a button or 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 working on the growth of 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 moving and had to have made for so very clear that economic growth shouldn't come at any expense we should have a can on the growth with rule of law and with clean government o.c. c.r.p. said that on the muskets leadership criminality and corruption have flourished and in many cases gone unpunished creating an environment that led to the 27000 murder of dufner corona gullied see if they knew that the same message was coming for. international watchdogs you had to know what was going on yourself because you're

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 but it is going to have sometimes because unfortunately the rule of family or dual 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 anymore it's. just assertion that when the say the personal relationships are worth more than the rule of law but say in the future in government what's worth more than the rule of law yes but in small societies i'm saying and there again i'm not trying to excuse anything it's more like you and 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 poorest there's no bond there between one and the other all i'm 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 regulators who serve in government are expected to accept that challenge and run it is going well they are. 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 mitt's 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 that 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 own view had been shoddy and you adequate my signature hold 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 another going to you didn't stand for your prince i agree with you but i tried to use that to negotiate measures to hold the government to account now when it happened when the city was impossible. well some measure started coming in but then when this time the news started coming after november i made it very clear that i was going to resign and they said i did 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 told me to remain i want only m.e.p. called part of this swamp of corruption and financial curd i try to do my bit better they 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 are at an existing shilled crossroads since our independence 55 years ago we either get our house in order or we i think threaten our sovereignty and they were low for the motor but they've been so many warnings like that before heaven then they were ignored in 2017 year and chief justice silvio comey larry warned that instead of the rule of law malta was heading to what he called the rule of delinquents whether that was enough to change

anybody's mind then wasn't warning in stark sharp terms like the. debate when when things start the 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 but you didn't name names did you might think it was clear who i was referring to really it wasn't outside went in 63 they think it was their unit leave given that the same people were still in government and still a part of the establishment. i made internal pressure and i didn't manage to get them committed to concede 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 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 have had. irrespective of the share of human nature with the zone of the that there is. when you have such strong economic growth and the regulators are not given enough resources or intentionally. to a certain is there's a skills intention to a certain extent yes but not all of them either but for example when it comes to

financial investigations that 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 see 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 government the appointment of magistrate sound 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 anymore there is a judicial appointment committee and we are intent definitely on taking the steps

that the venice commission has indicated you soused to do so for not going on but we have started that i don't you see even in the last that differ in the last week even sorry even in the last month apart from the last week sets have been taken to start implementing those recommendations under dinu prime minister. in may 2016 when you said things were fine. they plainly weren't worthy you said the government had already started in 2016 to introduce a culture of better political responsibility and transparency that wasn't true you know it all struck but those were the measures that i told you about 3 years later 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 moscow 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 cleaned they were they weren't working going off but why give them away given a free pass a a culture of better political responsibility and transparency has been introduced then we have the parliament papers the electro gas the further hilman the further vittles global health care for the golden passport all all time again featuring the same key figures close to the prime minister and the police and 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 intended. and they repeated the weakest link was and still remains even now and we have to act about the economic crimes here 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. more than you've ever told you

know the names you and the places you know where the bodies are buried don't you and have you taken a vow of silence no i haven't and if you are you afraid for you're alive one of them you seen what happens to people no tell the truth and you know that you know very similar that if there is anyone who has not taken a vow of silence is me because i have spoken up i have spoken up time and take notice you dance around the subject you make cryptic comments like justice can be served without fear of. favor without burning this country to cinders and without burning or hurting those who want justice done what on earth is not clean it's not critical to the earth does it mean who is it addressed it was addressed to my government but when they pull enough pressure for their change to happen you also there are very very spoke 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 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 a little 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 do you mean 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 well 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 my not have no course and the bones of because of their names why don't generalize to the police if there are

investigations i think i can assure you that i'm doing my duty in my only beings of the police of her home i'm doing my duty that i got there was 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 would stake my reputation on that how do we know that when you won't you know it's just you sitting in front of the camera and you want to tell me what you want to be judged by will 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 daphne corona girly and silence free journalism they have and will but they haven't got away with it they haven't activated 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 of as story no it's not the end of

the story and it cannot be the end of the story did all the troops it's uncovered and by that 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 this 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 and that will do it 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 for them to do this is no law some of the council of europe warn that a series of magistrates should have been taken off the case because of conflicts of interest likewise the investigating police officer force claims that sayed said were made by the minister of the interior but progress in the investigation if that's not an investigation tainted with on its own because it did give results and

11 important point in all this is that there are other services involved including the report so even if there are elements who want to cover up that information is available to the force beyond so that there is a good guarantee that the whole truth will come out the ethnic her own ability or didn't have much that was nice to say but you did see. the symbol 2016 she wrote but tolo were decent and honest with the 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 i don't think so and i don't agree with her comment i respect what she had done but i think she was very prettiest against him and if you were decent would have allowed himself to be part of muskrats power hungry bandwagon because if i 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 it in my own little way and i'm not trying to kill. put myself in the in the role of a knight in shining armor 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 write like that and the other part was in government i have tried to bring about changes in my own lives they look at me with interest corruptors you're aware that is the idea that 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 at the time she will be as but that the way should try to. before that i think is unfair and a bit on balance just about all if you want malta's reputation really spray 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 just you care on the

girl it is your son the son of deafness his musket is still the power behind the throne the huge networks of influence and fanatical support in the labor liberty no i don't agree with matthew and disturbs that have been taken during this month shows that there is a new good will to get things done really look no further than the minimum given him self and his family have been happy with the person who has been investigating the death of their of their money because if they did not they did not say that 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't say again that the new subs of have been taken in the last month shows that there is a new good will we will be judged not to pete not but what you are saying now but what will happen in the next weeks and in the next month it really doesn't look very much like it when the contract of the government awarded

a contract to the 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 public and it was now you say this government and that is it was can sit here and so going to through public no question no i don't agree but why was he given a 2nd contract in the 1st place if he was about to be illegal rubbish a new broom sweeping up the corruption you bring in the one of the most had. only that contract was done before before the change not after that wasn't a contract signed by 100 new prime minister then 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 we're pretty far from that aren't we especially given the continue attacks we're seeing on free journalism in malta but what you've actually taught journalism i won't go if you allow that not what the decks are for nuclear watchdog reporters without borders spoke last october of a hostile environment for independent. you're shaking your head at the australian independent journalists and mortar 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 laws attributed the press in the last 7 years we have decriminalize libel cases they are referring to a number of cases but to show 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 and it's very robust and very strong criticism of what goes on more to it says is unique among e.u. 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 hey will again defend their reality of a mike ross state where you either have certain excuse not just because the smiths trying to explain because whole how can you have a small newspaper which is viable a mortar it's a there you either have a political party doing it or you have the state doing good business organizations don't find viable to have a media talk on asli 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 our microstate and it's not only more thought that has this perhaps the most unpleasant aspect of your party has been its attempts to dehumanize stuff nicole and the girl it's 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 totally unacceptable and i made it very clear that it was still to linux have the been told to an acceptable 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 near are those that are so annoying that they want to tell it is a great deal more or not to celebrate them saying that at least 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 a devolved investigate who investigating 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 little by little culture to celebrate her service a nation calling her relatives a family of animals and completely unacceptable but there are fortunately it's part of the terminology sometimes the local political culture which is sometimes used because the labor party supporters as well you don't have all the way into bill to get a new reputation with all this behind you have done to whom you 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 for culprits thank you. the be. the be. the be. the be. subject.

to. debate this for me. is for you. for help the beethoven just for. the beethoven is for that. the beethoven is for us oblique over is for the beethoven 2020 the 250th anniversary here

on w. . is his human race destroying itself. we are ruining the basic elements of our existence more using too much water and more can lead to the burdensome life long as the bomber supplies will last for ever but they won't submit when the rain stops starts march 20th on w. . green the announcement. of the shoes above his wrist bands. eat submodel the beat in the breeze love meet the

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. the ball. this is g w news live from berlin and the u.s. fans nearly all travel from europe to fight the spread of the coronavirus president donald trump claims new infections in the u.s. on a lack of action in europe. for 30 days. also coming up as italy struggles to contain its massive outbreak of the coronavirus the doctor there has this advice for the rest of the world. prepared. her.