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maltatoday.com is an independent, English-language Maltese newspaper. Got a tip? Send it to us. Malta's source for breaking news, information and lifestyle.
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07/08/2025

Man admits to assaulting woman during heated exchange over return to South America

07/08/2025

29-year-old accused of issuing over 50 single-use permits through a hacked government profile, with court raising red flags over forged documents and illegal employment

07/08/2025

Court hears how 44-year-old left flowers and handwritten letters on his former partner’s car after she ended their relationship and blocked him on social media

07/08/2025

Criminal defence lawyer Mario Mifsud is set to be charged over a verbal altercation with repeat offender Pasqualino Cefai during a sitting at the Gozo court

07/08/2025

The meeting provided a platform for a cordial and productive exchange on the strengthening of cultural ties and the promotion of economic cooperation between Ghana and Malta

07/08/2025

134 actions taken out of 387 investigations concluded in 2024

07/08/2025

NGOs Solidarjetà and Moviment Graffitti welcome government’s affordable housing initiative, saying they supports efforts addressing Malta’ housing crisis

07/08/2025

Francine Farrugia has resigned from all her posts within the Nationalist Party and the Siġġiewi local council having been charged with fraud and misappropriation of over €2.3 million in public funds

07/08/2025

Former Air Malta pilot files a judicial protest alleging the airline submitted a forged document bearing his signature in court proceedings, with a forensic handwriting expert confirming the forgery

07/08/2025

Inter-ministerial committee set up to evaluate feedback on proposed planning reforms • Public consultation open until 7 September

07/08/2025

A senior MCAST employee and PN local councillor is denied bail after being charged with fraud and misappropriation of over €2.3 million in public funds.

Siggiewi local councillor Francine Farrugia, who served as a manager within the salaries department at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), was arraigned in court on Wednesday, facing multiple charges including fraud, money laundering, misappropriation, and computer misuse.

The case stemmed from internal investigations launched in June this year after discrepancies were flagged in the institution’s payroll system.

According to police testimony, Farrugia exploited her access to MCAST’s internal salary system to issue illegal double payments to herself over a two-year period between 2023 and 2025. In total, €2,337,258.80 was allegedly transferred fraudulently.

Financial Crime Investigations Unit officers revealed in court that Farrugia transferred more than €1.9 million of these funds directly into her personal Revolut account. Other transfers, including one of €200,000, were made to a notary.

She was arrested at her MCAST office on Tuesday. During the search of her residence, officers discovered large quantities of luxury goods, including designer handbags, shoes, clothing, and other high-end fashion items. Court testimony also indicated that she had spent over €113,000 at Harrods. Property contracts and vehicle purchases were also flagged, allegedly made during the same period.

Read more on MaltaToday: https://bit.ly/4oxgHm3

07/08/2025

Court hears how Siggiewi councillor allegedly transferred funds to herself and spent thousands on luxury items

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Malta's source for breaking news, political and current affairs, investigation and intelligent debate. MaltaToday was first published on Friday, 19 November 1999. It was edited by Saviour Balzan and founded to provide a new, liberal alternative to the English-language press in circulation, by promoting an agenda in favour of EU accession and critical voices excluded from the establishment.

MaltaToday was published every week on Friday, positioning itself as a weekend newspaper for two years before it decided to enter the market of English-language Sunday newspapers, until then dominated by the Sunday Times and the Malta Independent on Sunday.

In late 2003, Saviour Balzan purchased MaltaToday from Network Publications, and with the addition of Roger de Giorgio as co-shareholder and director, formerly the CEO of the Nationalist party’s TV station Net TV, became Mediatoday. MaltaToday’s reputation for uncovering political abuse and financial excess, as in the case of the Price Club scandal, was tested by numerous libel suits. Coping under pain of the financial stress of the libel laws, still squarely set against the freedom of the press, became a state of reality for MaltaToday.

On 17 May 2005, it was hit by the unexpected death of senior journalist Julian Manduca, one of Malta’s foremost environmental activists. A focal point of the newspaper, Manduca is remembered with fondness by the staff at Mediatoday, both for his humane interest in many social issues and his journalistic integrity.

MaltaToday’s championing of migrants’ and asylum seekers’ rights in the aftermath of EU accession, gave the newspaper a more defined role in the changing landscape of Maltese society. As the immigration and race debate overtook the island’s agenda, in May 2006 the front door of editor Saviour Balzan was attacked by arsonists at 4am. Nobody was ever captured for the attack, one of several committed against members of the press and refugee organisations.

MaltaToday started achieving widespread recognition for its investigative reports and political news stories, earning a reputation for exposing stories left untouched by other media. It was the first newspaper to break the news in August 2001 that Commissioner of Police George Grech had been accused of sexual harassment. In 2002, it started revisiting the police investigations into the 1985 murder of Lino Cauchi, and with it, the political reverberations of the violence and mysteries of the 1980s; the forced nationalisation of the BICAL bank in 2005; it was crucial in the death knell of a new golf course – a controversial point of debate over Malta’s land use – when it revealed it would be sited over a vital water table; in 2006, it revealed the AFM army log book that ordered rescuers to stay away from a boatload of asylum seekers that eventually drowned in the Mediterranean; in 2007, it became the first newspaper, ever, to force the European Parliament to publish specific details on the salaries and expenses of MEPs, thanks to a ruling by the European Ombudsman. Its reputation was further sealed in 2009 when it revealed that finance minister Tonio Fenech had accepted a freebie flight on a private jet to an Arsenal match. Weeks later, MaltaToday would reveal claims by the owner of the Jerma Palace Hotel, alleging that he was carrying out works at the minister's home, as a favour for Fenech's intervention to sell his hotel to George Fenech - the owner of the private jet aboard which Tonio Fenech flew to watch Arsenal. Countless exposés followed, chief among them the Enemalta oil scandal in 2013.

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