#Ħsibijiet 115- Factchecking in Malta's Mediasphere

It is very unfortunate that Facebook will be ditching fact-checking, thus doing an Elon Musk. X has increasingly become a swamp of poorly verifiable noise and I had to leave the platform after 14 years. 

I think that in this brave new mediasphere, readers have the opportunity and responsibility to to use media platforms which are more likely to give reliable information. In this regard, the Times of Malta has a commendable, fair, measured and objective fact-checking service, and I encourage other Maltese media houses to follow suit.

Deliberating third political parties in Malta

I would like to recommend some recent reads on third parties in Malta, published in The Times of Malta (2), Lovin Malta, and The Maltese Herald:

Hermann Schiavone highlights the trade-off between stable governments and parliamentary pluralism, offering a possible way forward.

Lou Bondi argues that there is no guarantee that having three parties in parliament is better than having two. He also emphasizes the difference between activism and governance, even on "boring", yet important matters.

Sandra Gauci takes a realpolitik approach, stating that as things stand, small parties are more likely to succeed in local councils—something also I had written about. Evidence supports Gauci’s argument, and ADPD currently has two elected local councillors.

Mark Camilleri provides a concrete example of how a third party was recently elected to Parliament. I had given similar advice to Alternattiva Demokratika during the same elections. However, the outcome of this coalition in opposition is another (important) matter altogether.

Such deliberations, grounded in concrete evidence, are welcome.

I have also recently penned some reflections on small political parties in Malta.

Open Access Publication on Civil Society and Social Movements in Small States

With reference to the Handbook of Civil Society and Social Movements in Small States  (Routledge, 2023) edited by  Lino Briguglio, Michael Briguglio, Sheila Bunwaree and Claire Slatter, the following chapter is now available in Open Access Format:

Introduction - Civil society and social movements in small states, by Lino Briguglio, Michael Briguglio, Sheila Bunwaree and Claire Slatter. 

The chapter may be downloaded from here. 

Small political parties in Malta: Some reflections

During these past days, I articulated some reflections and questions related to the development of two new political parties in Malta. 

Together with Harry Vassallo, I was interviewed by Daniel Attard (Times of Malta) about whether a third party can penetrate Malta’s two-party dominance. The article was published today on the online version of Times of Malta, and it appeared on the print version last Wednesday 1 January. You can read the interview here.

I also penned down some questions on this blog, which were subsequently taken up by Tim Diacono (Lovin' Malta), and which were also engaged with by the Partit Malta Progressiva. You can read the respective news articles here and here.