Every year, Times of Malta journalists report, reveal and respond to many important events. But what is the one story that impacted them most in 2021? Our team take you behind the scenes of their chosen story of the year. Their choices might surprise you.
A rape victim ignored – Sarah Carabott
The story I will take with me into the new year is the horrific account of a woman who was brutally raped for almost an hour as her two daughters listened to the ordeal.
Despite the presence of witnesses, and photos of the injuries, corroborated by a hospital report, her story had remained unacknowledged for 15 months until she recounted it to Times of Malta.
It was one of the most emotional interviews I had undertaken in a decade and the lack of action at such an injustice left videographer Karl Andrew Micallef and myself shaken for weeks after.
Following the publication of the article and the accompanying video, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà said the inspector who failed to properly investigate the case was facing disciplinary action. The woman was only contacted by a different inspector after Times of Malta sent further questions to the police.
She had initially come forward to speak after our editor, Herman Grech posted a photo on social media showing victims Daphne Caruana Galizia, Kim Borg Virtu, Miriam Pace and Chantelle Chetcuti, captioned “four women killed by ‘the system’”. Proof that representation does matter, she felt empowered to speak up as someone was willing to listen.
Maybe next year we should do more listening.
He’s convinced he’s doing the right thing – Mark Laurence Zammit
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to sit down and discuss with people from all walks of life in the past few years but the interview which impacted me most this year was with mega-developer Joseph Portelli.
I believe many reacted so strongly to this interview because it was the first time they had seen and heard the man himself. Up until that moment, Portelli was almost a household name but very few had actually listened to what he had to say.
I was honestly astonished at what appeared to be a genuine, almost child-like conviction that he is doing the right thing. In his mind, Portelli is not trying to ruin anybody’s environment. He genuinely believes his projects are an indispensable, futuristic contribution to the economic and social growth of the country.
Of course, like many interviews of its kind, my conversation with Portelli stirred criticism from those who believe “such people” should not be given exposure on a platform like Times of Malta. I have never agreed with that argument.
Firstly, cancelling out the voices we don’t like sets a dangerous precedent for anti-democratic practices. Secondly, I believe we must all listen intently, mostly to the people we disagree with. That, in my opinion, is our best bet at finding solutions to our most pressing issues.
The day Malta was greylisted – Ivan Martin
On June 23, members of a global anti-money laundering watchdog held a secret vote which saw Malta greylisted.
It was perhaps the most significant development in the country this year, aside from the ongoing pandemic.
Only a handful of top government officials were informed of the outcome of that vote, held in Paris by the Financial Action Task Force, but the rest of the country was holding its breath.
Would Malta be deemed untrustworthy? And what impact could all this have on our economy, which was already buckling under the weight of the global virus outbreak?
Times of Malta has been at the forefront of reporting on the review process by the FATF and had broken all the stories related to it starting from an initial review by MoneyVal some three years earlier.
On the day Malta was greylisted, a source within the specially dedicated team of top civil servants and regulators had already indicated which way the decision was heading.
Government contacts, however, were all tight-lipped and no minister would dare comment.
But when the close-knit group of advisers finally broke conclave and briefed their political bosses on the outcome, we got the confirmation we needed.
We were the first to break the story with intimate insider details. The story went international and I believe Times of Malta is still at the bleeding edge of reporting on the developments in our efforts to get off the grey list.
A prison of pain – Matthew Xuereb
When I met Martin Borg Nicholas Virtu, who had just lost his daughter to suicide in prison, I kept picturing what I would do in a similar situation.
As a father, I cannot fathom what parents must go through when they outlive their children. But Martin’s circumstances made it worse: he lost his daughter because she could not take the toxic environment at Corradino Correctional Facility any longer, something I have been writing about for years and which, finally, came to a head this year.
His words that his daughter was driven to insanity by the regime inside prison keep resonating in my head.
Kim was found unconscious in her cell on June 16 and died in hospital three weeks later.
The interview with Martin was perhaps the most difficult in my 20-year-plus career in journalism. What do you tell a grieving father? What do you say when he blames himself for his daughter’s situation because he says he had “lost his grip” on her?
“She kept telling me ‘sorry daddy for doing this, I will make it up to you when I’m out... I’m sorry for what I did’,” were the words from a father.
Martin spoke to me just a few days after he buried his daughter on her 30th birthday.
His courage was immense and his resolve was clear: “I cannot bring my daughter back but I don’t want this to happen to others. Let’s save lives,” he kept insisting throughout our meeting.
Since that interview, the head of the CCF has been replaced and a review made far-reaching recommendations about the future of the facility.
This is where journalism – and the courage of people to speak out – can make a difference.
Did this story start a movement? – Kristina Abela
Sitting across from Jaiteh Lamin in the cold light of a hospital ward is a moment that will remain with me always. He had agreed to an interview, the day after his fall on a construction site and being dumped in the road but the bewilderment in his eyes, as he told me his story, made it hard to even look up, let alone ask questions.
As certain details began to emerge – how he had been thrust out of a van, left like roadkill on the tarmac and then told to lie about his accident – I realised how big his story was.
This was the clear result of a system – policies, rhetoric – that dehumanised ‘migrants’ and made it OK for others to do so too. As he sat in a back brace, unsure of whether he would be able to walk again, he seemed most wounded by the realisation that a person he worked alongside could disregard him so cruelly.
I felt ashamed. But the whole nation seemed to feel ashamed and that was positive.
So many similar stories go unvoiced and victims unheard. While policies have not changed since Jaiteh’s fall, his story has created some movement within people’s conscience. And if nothing else, it’s a start.
What was the story that impacted you most in 2021? Let us know and tell us why and we’ll share a selection. Email newsroom@timesofmalta.com with Story of the Year as your subject.
A wartime survivor – Giulia Magri
In March, Sliema marked the 80th anniversary of a catastrophic air raid that destroyed the residential St Rita Street, killing 21 people.
One of the comments under an article marking the event was from 92-year-old Carmel Vella, a survivor of that air raid.
As a former history student who never grows tired of reading wartime recollections, I traced Carmel to hear more about his story.
Unfortunately, I had just tested positive for coronavirus, so I was unable to meet him in person, however, I did have the pleasure of spending what felt like hours on the phone as he recounted in colourful detail what happened on the night of March 11, 1941.
He recalled the loud deafening whistle of a bomb falling, how his aunt recited the rosary repeatedly and how his sister cried for their father in the darkness of the Sliema shelter that night.
Carmel’s story gave readers a detailed picture of a Malta few remember and of how one historical moment impacted the life of a 13-year-old boy.
Toddlers in court – Edwina Brincat
I will never forget that July afternoon. I was typing away in a quiet corner of the law courts when the elevator leading up from the lockup slid open and out stepped two toddlers, wide-eyed and silent, hands held protectively by two women who were being escorted by plainclothes officers.
As a court reporter, I was intrigued: children are rarely seen in court.
That was my first glimpse of Rabia Yavuz and Muzekka Deneri, the Turkish mothers whose court saga made the headlines in the weeks that followed.
As the hearing started, so did their sons’ cries. While the dazed women sat through a volley of legal arguments, the toddlers’ cries outside the room persisted. I cannot describe the emotions that washed over me during those interminable and tense minutes.
When judgment was delivered – a six-month jail term for the mothers falsifying documents – the women’s tears added to the heavy atmosphere in the room. Their children had no one to look after them and so were to be cared for by the state. I had to highlight their plight.
Their court saga eventually ended on a more positive note but the toddlers’ cries still echo in my mind.
Sisters reunited – Claudia Calleja
The pandemic took away precious time of connection and togetherness and I think this is why this story is so close to my heart. Because, as I grow older, I cherish time with family more.
One of my favourite stories this year was told in two parts. It started as an interview with Josette Zammit, a resident at a Mosta care home for the elderly, in February.
Josette had lost her husband, Carmelo, a few months earlier. In the interview, carried out via Skype, she spoke about the solitary reality in homes where she watched television all day.
She spoke about how she could not wait for the day she could hug her “little sister”, then 74-year-old Georgette Farrugia Sacco.
When the sisters finally met again in June, I was there and it was so emotional. They recounted so many stories from their past.
We spoke, with masks on, in the gardens of the home before Georgette drove her sister to the empty home she had not yet stepped into since her husband passed away. They were there for one another, reunited. And I witnessed that moment.
I loved telling that story.
Who owns Macbridge? – Jacob Borg
A leaked e-mail from Malta opened a murky trail to the other side of the world in the hunt for yet another key puzzle in the Panama Papers corruption scandal.
Unlocking the answer to who owns Macbridge, a company supposedly registered in the secretive United Arab Emirates, would prove to be a painstaking process, with many dead ends along the way.
The company was named along with Yorgen Fenech’s 17 Black as the two vehicles that would be used to funnel millions to Panama companies owned by former government officials Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.
A break in the hunt finally came in November 2019.
After his arrest on suspicions of complicity in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, Fenech teased knowledge of government corruption schemes running into the millions.
He claimed Macbridge stood for Malta-China bridge.
I worked with a team of journalists to search through corporate filings in Hong Kong and China for any trace of Macbridge.
On paper, Macbridge was found to be owned by a Chinese national called Tang Zhaomin. However, the team established she was likely acting as a front for Chen Cheng, her son-in-law.
Chen played central roles in the corruption-riddled Enemalta-Montenegro wind farm project and helped negotiate a partial buyout of Enemalta by a Chinese state-owned company.
To have companies linked to both Chen and Fenech connected to Schembri’s and Mizzi’s offshore structures further elevated suspicions of their shady plans.
When Times of Malta and Reuters published the Macbridge story, Prime Minister Robert Abela wrote to the police commissioner urging him to investigate the findings.
No action has yet been taken against Schembri or Mizzi on the Panama Papers scandal.
Crowded Comino goes viral – Fiona Galea Debono
The article about Blue Lagoon’s takeover by beach operators, elbowing out anyone unwilling to rent deckchairs and umbrellas, was no breaking news.
But the fact that the occupation and abuse of public land remained a problem summer after summer was a story.
And when it was published, the accompanying video by Karl Andrew Micallef, showing the situation on Comino, went viral to the country’s shame, amassing almost five million views across the world, a record for Times of Malta.
The tourism watchdog, whose role it is to monitor the beaches and prevent the occupation of the foreshore, was, nevertheless, evasive – as were other responsible entities – paving a free-for-all situation for concession operators that continues to irk the public.
The outrage led to a parliamentary petition in a last-ditch attempt to clear Comino of deckchairs and umbrellas. But the sad reality is that history is likely to repeat itself next summer.
The story was among others that highlighted illegalities, largely ignored, on the ecologically sensitive island.
From the government’s illicit resurfacing works on a controversial dust road leading to the Blue Lagoon and the building of questionable service culverts, to the occupation of its camp site by permanent ‘tents’ and hotel barriers blocking public access to bays, Comino – and its land-grab issues – were in the spotlight throughout summer 2021.
No village feasts – Claire Farrugia
After writing about COVID-19 for almost two years, few issues related to the pandemic shock me anymore. But when I learnt through sources that the annual traditional feasts would be banned for the second year running, I knew the story would disappoint thousands of people.
Many were keen on spending their summer months in village squares celebrating the fact they had successfully made it through some very tough months. With the majority fully vaccinated at the time, a lot of people were angered they would not be able to do so.
The story stuck with me because, for the first time in a while, I could feel the stress, anxiety and disappointment the pandemic was causing people.
Readers’ fears that Malta’s heritage risked being negatively impacted for years to come was something I was not expecting when writing the piece and breaking the news.
A crisis narrowly averted – Jessica Arena
Stopping to take a closer look at an unfolding situation led to the most impactful story I reported on this year.
Walking leisurely to a meeting in Valletta in November, I noticed a group of people looking at something near City Gate. On closer look, I realised that a man who appeared to be in severe distress was balanced precariously on the bastion.
I would have likely left and gotten on with my day had I not heard people taunting this man. To mutter an underhanded comment is one thing but to shout unkind things to a person at their lowest point is another entirely.
I felt immense responsibility on how the story should be reported and it took effort to remain composed until he was thankfully pulled to safety.
Outrage and anger were natural reactions but I’m also glad important conversations about mental health and the resources needed for mental health care came about as a response.
Trapped for nine months – Karl Andrew Micallef
Connecting with a story first-hand is what I enjoy the most.
When I was asked to interview and film Antide, a 75-year-old woman who had been stuck inside her home for nine months due to an uncompleted lift in her apartment block, I relished the opportunity.
Listening to Antide’s plight, as she sat on her sofa on the edge of despair, I could feel some of her pain being relieved. She just needed to be given a platform to speak out.
I was not planning on meeting the neighbours but when they just happened to be walking up the stairs, they underlined the problem and also made it clear how they were willing to do anything to help their neighbour. Acts like these make me feel hopeful about the future.
This may not be the biggest story of the year, yet, it had the biggest impact on me as a video journalist because it entrenched in me a sense of responsibility in my work.