TVM decision to stop airing news broadcasts and move to TVMnews+ met with harsh criticism

Jul 31 2021

A change to the national broadcasts of news bulletins has been met with a considerable amount of criticism after TVM announced that news and current affairs shows will no longer air on TVM’s primary station but on a newly-converted TVMnews+.

The new television station will take the place of TVM2 and exclusively air news, sports, culture & history programmes with TVM to only broadcast programmes related to entertainment.

The first to criticise the move were the PN, who stated that they are considering legal action to put a halt to the Labour Party’s ‘grip’ on Malta’s national television station, expressing that they do not believe PBS management will act fairly and autonomously after being found guilty of partiality multiple times.

The PN also highlighted how multiple journalists reportedly left the television station due to the inability to work freely and also criticised the lack of coverage given to the Opposition, despite orders from The Broadcasting Authority.

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Photo Source: ContinentalEurope, Television Malta

Study reveals vaccinated individuals could carry as much COVID-19 as others

Jul 31 2021

Scientists who have researched a recent significant COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts in the United States have concluded that vaccinated individuals who contracted what were called ‘breakthrough infections’ carried around the same amount of COVID-19 as unvaccinated individuals.

United States health officials published details of this research, ultimately contributing to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to once again recommend indoor mask-wearing in virus hotspots where the delta variant is surging.

Such findings may alter the thinking of how the virus is spread as the outbreak in Provincetown has so far registered over 900 cases with around 74% of them being fully vaccinated.

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Salvu Mallia states Labour should pay compensation to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family

Jul 30 2021

Former PN candidate and public presenter Salvu Mallia posted to Facebook stating that the Labour Party should pay compensation to the late Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family. Failure to do so would mean that the Maltese public would be victimised for the second time. This follows a public inquiry’s release which led to Prime Minister Robert Abela formally apologising for shortcomings by the state in protecting the journalist from being targeted and eventually assassinated.

With the Prime Minister’s formal invitation to the journalist’s family yet to be accepted, Mallia reposted stating that an apology means guilt. This, according to Mallia, makes the Prime Minister as guilty as the ones who were in office beforehand. With some of Malta’s most powerful politicians and businessmen implicated in the murder, Mallia labelled the government as ‘murderers’ as the island’s ongoings make international headlines.

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Photo Source: Repubblika FB, Salvu Mallia FB

Malta no longer with Europe’s lowest COVID-19 death rate

Jul 30 2021

New data has revealed that Malta no longer has the lowest death rate amongst European countries. Marking the first time the island hasn’t registered a death rate of zero in weeks, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) revealed that Malta’s 14 day death notification rate per 1,000,000 inhabitants stood at 1.94. Being among the lowest in Europe, other countries such as Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Finland all had lower rates.

The infection rate in Malta continued to grow over the past few weeks, standing at 490.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Up 379 from last week, the island’s rate climbed up to fourth highest in Europe. With Malta classified on the ECDC’s red travel list, it is only outmatched by Cyprus, Spain and the Netherlands in terms of cases registered between July 12th and 25th.

Weekly hospitalisation also dropped slightly when comparing previous periods. The rate stands at 2.3 new admissions per 100,000 people. Authorities stated that the situation is being monitored to establish whether the spike in cases in the community is reflected in admissions total.

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Photo Source: Wikipedia