Every year our journalists report, investigate and explain the stories that matter. This year, we asked the team to choose those that struck them most in 2019. From secret deals to hidden issues and two murders that exposed Malta's dark side, these are the stories that will stick in their minds long after New Year.

Justice for Daphne

Jacob Borg

Daphne Caruana Galizia's brutal assassination rocked the island. Having known Daphne and her son Matthew, I felt an added responsibility as a journalist to ensure justice for her killing was served.

We discovered over the summer of 2019 that Melvin Theuma, a taxi driver with known links to Yorgen Fenech, held the key to identifying who ordered the car bombing. We knew the police had long identified the suspected middleman and at least one of the murder masterminds. I first received a tip about Mr Fenech's involvement way back in April 2018.

The government, including the prime minister's former chief of staff were being briefed about developments in the case. As time passed and no action was taken by the police, we took the decision to break the news that a prominent businessman topped the list of suspects. 

The story was originally scheduled to run a week prior to the ultimate publication date, but we decided to spend another five days tapping our sources to better understand why no action was taken. 

After countless debates and story drafts, we decided to run the story as multiple sources were telling us the police appeared almost reluctant to round up the suspects. 

One month after the front-page story was published on October 6, Mr Fenech was caught trying to flee the country on his luxury yacht. He has since been charged with complicity in the murder.

The sole survivor 

Diana Cacciottolo

When I met Mohammed Adam Oga, he was lying on a hospital bed so emaciated, I momentarily wondered if he was, in fact, alive. 

Just two days earlier, he was pictured kneeling over a dead body on a small boat floating aimlessly in the Mediterranean. 

I leapt at the opportunity to interview him. His story could help our readers understand what it is really like to risk everything to make that perilous journey to Europe. 

It was not the easiest interview I have ever executed, but as his story unfurled through his still-parched lips, it turned out to be one of the most shocking. 

He was the sole survivor of 15 who set off from Libya. At one point he closed his eyes to demonstrate how, one by one, his fellow passengers succumbed to thirst and heat. 

The story ran on international media and led to calls for action. But when I reflect on the story of Mohammed and his doomed fellow passengers, four months on, I do so with a sense of sadness. The lives of those in similar distress don’t seem any better off and his disturbing story has not sparked anything close to a solution. 

Since then, we have reported on horrific treatment of migrants at the hands of the authorities in Malta. And a Malta-led attempt to create an adequate resettlement response has so far failed to reach EU consensus. 

I hope that for Mohammed, at least, there is a good future after his incredible ordeal. 

Children facing eviction

Kristina Abela

I was humbled to meet the families of children facing eviction from Malta, after the authorities had said they did not earn enough to stay on the island. 

Most of them had escaped poverty in their home country, to seek out a better future.

They worked tirelessly to prove themselves as employees and strove to provide more for their families. Which is why they have been so confused by Identity Malta's refusal of their children’s residence permits to safeguard them from poverty. 

Having to pack up and leave would spell ruin for most of them. When they approached me, they were ready to do whatever it took to defend their rights and those of their children. It was a privilege to tell their story. 

Bravery after a mugging

Claire Caruana

Of the hundreds of stories I worked on in 2019, the one that left its mark on me the most featured an elderly couple mugged in broad daylight in Sliema.

Since I tend to focus mostly on political stories, I was reluctant to work on it at first as I feared I could not handle it the way it deserved to be handled. 

But the experience of interviewing the traumatised couple who wanted to speak out in an attempt to highlight the problem as well as the feedback after the story was published will surely stick with me for many years to come.

A secret deal with Libya

Ivan Martin

Over the past year we had become increasingly sceptical about the way migrant rescue operations were being conducted in the waters between Malta, Libya, and Italy. Migrant boats were often left stranded for hours or even days as the three countries held backroom discussions over who should be responsible for rescuing them.

In the end of October a whistleblower source started leaking information to me. This person described how Malta had secretly negotiated an agreement with Libya that sees the Armed Forces of Malta coordinate with the Libyan coastguard. Migrants heading towards Malta are intercepted and returned to the war-torn North African country.

I learned of the details of this agreement for “mutual cooperation” that had been struck between members of the AFM and the Libyan coastguard, with controversial government official Neville Gafà acting as an intermediary.

Mr Gafà, who works out of the Office of the Prime Minister in an undisclosed position, has faced repeated allegations of bribery linked to the issuing of medical visas to Libyan nationals, claims he denies. 

When Times of Malta exposed the secret deal, it made international headlines in Italy, the UK and the US.  It shed light on the secret dealings between governments that was resulting in the most vulnerable of people often being forced to return to North African detention camps where human rights are a luxury.

Saving historic architecture

Keith Micallef

Alarmed by a “barbaric proposal” which would have dwarfed Malta’s finest orientalist-styled building, the Ottoman-Muslim cemetery in Marsa, architectural historian Prof. Conrad Thake had contacted me to flag the matter last summer.

Only a few years before, the site adjacent to this masterpiece by renowned Maltese architect Emmanuele Luigi Galizia had been earmarked for a fuel station. Though that proposal had been shelved, this architectural monument was facing a new threat - this time in the form of a three-storey industrial garage building. 

Faced by a public outcry against this project which even made headlines internationally, the developer withdrew the application in November. 

Treated like animals

Matthew Xuereb

I have spent a large chunk of my journalistic career at the law courts where I saw hardened criminals and others who committed a mistake for the first time in their lives. 

But one of the stories that struck me most in 2019 was the treatment afforded to a group of migrants upon their arrival at Corradino Correctional Facility following their arraignment over their participation in a riot in October. 

They were stripped, washed down in a hose pipe and manhandled while packed like sardines in a division usually reserved for the punished prisoners. 

An inquiry was called following the story but the board seemed more interested in finding out who had leaked the information rather than find who was responsible and punish them. 

A mother’s honesty

Claudia Calleja

Being a parent is rewarding, amazing… and overwhelming. The thing is, people don't really talk about the tough side of parenthood, leaving new mothers feeling guilty as certain thoughts cross their minds. 

A few months ago I returned to Times of Malta after a four-year absence from journalism — this time as a mother. I came across an honest Facebook post by a mother-of-two talking about her personal experience and announcing the launch of a new support platform for parents.

Deborah Atanasio spoke about how the first year of becoming a mother was “the worst part” of her life because she also suffered severe postpartum psychosis.

I wanted to tell this story so that every mother and father out there would know they are not alone.

Shooting survivors speak out

Sarah Carabott

As Malta recoiled from the cold-blooded murder of Lassana Cisse on April 6, my thoughts immediately turned to the survivors of the racially motivated shootout.

Information about the two young men was scarce and the murder had sent ripples of fear among the migrant community so many were afraid to speak up. I only managed to trace Ibrahim and Mohamed through a mutual contact.

Both in their 20s, they were visibly shaken as they experienced traumatic flashbacks of the murder that cost them their jobs, health and shelter.

Their words haunt me to this day. Ibrahim and Mohamed were headed back home from a relaxed evening. They had just watched a football match and thought very little of the loud fatal bang that killed Lassana, who was just a few feet ahead of them.

The bangs could be anything from fireworks to keen football supporters, they thought. But they soon felt bullets tearing through their own bodies and found themselves sliding down the rubble wall lining Triq tal-Ġebel in Birżebbuġa.

Let’s hope that 2020 brings justice to the three victims of this shootout.

Anger on Valletta’s streets 

Jessica Arena

Protests in Malta tend to be sparsely attended affairs, but for the first time in my memory I saw a sense of urgency that did away with the complacency that holds back many a worthy cause.

Since the end of November, I’ve covered many Valletta protests following the arrest of Yorgen Fenech in connection with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination. 

The people I met were angry and motivated to enact real change with civil disobedience. Ministers had to be restrained from punch ups in the street while others were egged. 

As a relatively new journalist it was an opportunity to witness political history in the making. As the situation continues to unfold I have had the opportunity to speak to protest leaders, citizens, police officers and business owners and understand the many ways such a protracted series of events has continued to shape the multi-faceted political landscape in our country. 

Keeping politicians in check

Vanessa Conneely

Before moving to Malta in 2018 I lived in Turkey for three years and covered countless stories on refugees fleeing Syria. One of the most difficult periods for these people was when Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced he was building a wall to stop them passing through his country to central Europe. 

It was a chaotic time as the European Union scrambled to keep some order and I felt pretty helpless watching daily images of parents marching silently in freezing conditions carrying children on their backs.

Being able to look Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in the eye and ask him how he justified this decision, reminded me of how the media can keep politicians in check. 

While I’m under no illusion that any question I asked would change his mind, I was glad to have had the opportunity to remind people that the refugee crisis is still happening and will only get worse with climate change.

Face-to-face with poverty

Gordon Watson

I have visited the Foodbank Lifeline Foundation’s foodbank several times since I started working in Malta but this time it was important to get to know the people who rely on its services. 

What they told me revealed a bigger picture about poverty and financial difficulties than dry statistics could ever do. I helped the team feed 63 people that festive evening, just a fraction of the estimated 12,600 this year.

Why do people still say that there is no such thing as poverty in Malta? This is real, it's happening and it's a dark reality haunting Malta's economic boom.

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