It was a record-setting year for Times of Malta, as Malta’s number one news site climbed into the world’s top 3,500 websites. 

Those numbers were reflected in the attention given to individual articles, many of which were read by several tens of thousands of people. 

Live blogs of major court sessions - think Joseph Muscat or Keith Schembri as witnesses - captivated audiences, as did our days-long coverage of COVID-19 developments and our rolling coverage of Robert Abela’s dominant victory in the Labour Party leadership race.

Elsewhere in politics Economy Minister Silvio Schembri’s shock “foreigners will go back to their countries” speech in parliament attracted huge interest, and readers also lapped up news that Adrian Delia had lost an important confidence vote within the PN. 

But while interest was high for those political articles, it could not match the volumes of readers drawn to news about some other key topics. Here are the five most popular Times of Malta stories of 2020, in ascending order. 

5. Revealed: the countries Malta can open flights to from July 1

Arrivals at Malta International Airport.

Malta’s borders had been closed for around 10 weeks when Times of Malta revealed the list of countries which the government was planning on allowing travel to and from, come July 1. 

Perhaps cabin fever was starting to set in by that stage, because readers rushed to read and share the news with unbridled enthusiasm.

The 16-country list included places like Iceland, Lithuania and Israel but was conspicuously missing some of the key destinations which Malta traditionally relies on to fuel its tourism sector.

In the end, it was a summer to forget for hoteliers and other tourist-focused businesses, with airport traffic down roughly 70 per cent when compared to 2019 and many hotels opting to stay shut throughout summer. 

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4. Melvin Theuma hospitalised

Melvin Theuma (centre) exists court. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

The Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case has seen so many twists and turns, it can be hard to keep up. 

But when the man whose confession is at the heart of the case was rushed to hospital with a slit throat, even those with just a passing interest in the case sat up and listened. 

Our breaking news report about Melvin Theuma being hospitalised captivated readers, despite it being published on a Wednesday night in July, a time when interest in news is traditionally low. 

Readers could scarcely believe the news: Theuma had been found in a pool of blood in a bedroom, with a knife in his hand and wounds to his neck, wrist and kidneys.

Theuma’s injuries were later deemed to be self-inflicted and the middleman was eventually moved out of intensive care, though his recovery remains incomplete, almost six months later. 

Read the story.

3. First COVID case

Mater Dei Hospital.

After weeks of reports about a dangerous new virus spreading across the world like wildfire, the novel coronavirus was finally detected in Malta in early March. 

Patient zero - a 12-year-old girl – was announced on March 7. By the end of the day, her mother and father were also confirmed as COVID-19 positive. 

News of Malta’s first known virus cases grabbed attention both within the country as well as overseas, as readers from across the globe scrambled for whatever morsel of information they could get about the imminent pandemic. 
Readers’ anxiety was well-placed, as life was irrevocably changed by the news published that Wednesday afternoon. Within days of the first reported cases, Malta’s borders were slammed shut and countries across the globe started locking down entire societies. 

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2. Sliema double murder

Flowers outside the Locker Street house where Pandolfino and Maciejowski were killed. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

On a Tuesday night in August, word came through that a number of police cars had blocked off a residential street in Sliema. Minutes later, confirmation came through: investigators were probing what appeared to be a double homicide inside an elegant townhouse on Locker Street. 

By the following morning, details were starting to emerge. The victims were art collectors Christian Pandolfino and Ivor Maciejowski, and the two men had been shot at point blank range in different parts of their house. 

CCTV footage showed three men escaping the scene of the crime, and a manhunt quickly began. One week later, the first of three suspects was in police custody. All three are now facing murder charges. 

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1. Miriam Pace killed in house collapse

Firefighters search through the rubble of the Pace family home. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

When several buildings collapsed in 2019 and nobody was hurt, it almost seemed too good to be true. 

Sure enough, on March 2 of this year, that streak of improbably good luck came to an end. 

Miriam Pace was buried alive beneath the rubble of her own home on a Monday afternoon, with neighbours saying they heard what sounded “like an earthquake” as masonry collapsed. Her body was found around eight hours later. 

The shocking, horrifying news of Miriam Pace’s death captured readers’ attention in a way no other news item did. Not even the COVID-19 pandemic that reached Malta just five days later could match it. 

Police quickly rounded up people responsible for excavation works happening next door and hauled them in for questioning, as politicians toured the collapse site and Prime Minister Robert Abela promised a root and branch reform of construction laws – the second in the space of a year.

Seven months later, those reform pledges seem to have fallen by the wayside, as have the Pace family’s calls for a public inquiry into the case. And meanwhile, the construction sector rumbles on undisturbed. 

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