March 10, 2025 The role of the court expert has come under recent scrutiny, following British forensic accountant Jeremy Harbinson’s refusal to travel to Malta to testify in a prominent criminal case. Harbinson is one of the authors of a 1,200 page report into the privatisation of Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo general hospitals […]
Fact-check Malta: Can a court expert refuse to testify? Read More »
March 6, 2025 Valentine’s Day is usually a celebration of love. But this year, the White House put a dark spin on the popular ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ refrain to promote deportations, unwittingly duping several people into thinking its social media Valentine’s Day post was false. Around 14th February, social media users around
February 21, 2025 Earlier this year we highlighted a barrage of posts by fake pages and profiles targeting people interested in a popular artisan Christmas market in Malta. Scammers really never do take a holiday, and this particular tactic seems to be a growing trend. Another Facebook Event created by Malta Artisan Markets, this time
Fact-check Malta: Social media scammers strike again Read More »
February 4, 2025 The news of two fatal traffic accidents right at the beginning of the new year thrust long-standing concerns over road safety in Malta back into the spotlight. On Monday 6 January, 25-year-old Alejandro Brincat was killed after he lost control of his car in the town of Attard. On the same day, a
Fact-check Malta: Did a 2014 road safety strategy hit its targets? Read More »
January 3, 2025 Scams don’t take a holiday. In fact, it’s safe to expect more of them – on social media, SMS, phone calls or email – around festivities. We spotted one (or perhaps several) on Facebook just before Christmas. It wasn’t a post doing the rounds on a closed group. Instead, it was a
Fact-check Malta: Unwrapping disinformation – beware scams targeting events Read More »
December 13, 2024 Reports of HSBC’s looming departure from Malta in September sparked a torrent of speculation over what this meant for the bank’s clients, with some questioning what would happen to their savings and investments once the bank changed hands. The news was seemingly confirmed in recent weeks, with HSBC Malta telling its shareholders
Fact-check Malta: What happens when a bank changes hands? Read More »
November 20, 2024 A recently-resurfaced video clip shows a former Labour Party minister perpetuating misinformation about political murders in Malta. Joe Debono Grech, once a Labour minister in the 1980s and 1990s, was a guest on ‘Madwar Mejda’ (‘Around the Table’), a television programme on ONE, the station owned by Malta’s ruling Labour Party. During
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November 13, 2024 A false story about a lost child, which was called out as a scam by an American TV station earlier this year, has made it to Malta. The post, which carries two identical photos of a young boy, claims the three-year-old was found in Malta and has been taken to a Police
Fact-check Malta: Scam Facebook post about lost three-year-old boy makes it to Malta Read More »
November 7, 2024 A seemingly innocuous measure buried in the budget held on 28 October raised an unexpected furore when Times of Malta flagged that the required years of social security contributions to qualify for a full pension will rise from 41 years to 42 for people born after 1976. The measure quickly became the
Fact-check Malta: Did the budget increase Malta’s retirement age Read More »
October 22, 2024 Poor and tasteless construction is rampant in Malta. So it is no surprise that many Maltese believed that a particular image published on Facebook showed a local building. A reverse image search on Google quickly shows that the building is not in Malta. Search results show that it first went viral in
Fact-check Malta: The country has bad buildings, but this isn’t one of them Read More »
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