Thousands pay tribute to Daphne Caruana Galicia in Valletta five years since her murder

Malta, Europe and much of the world on Sunday today marked the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb on 16 October 2017 just a few hundred meters from her family home in Bidnia.

People gathered in Valletta on Sunday night to pay their respects to the slain journalist whose killing five years ago to the day brought down the government, led to the creation of civil society groups demanding accountability, good governance and political change, and which changed forever the face of Malta.

Just two days before Sunday’s tragic milestone, two brothers – murderers Alfred and George Degiorgio – shocked the court and the nation by suddenly and virtually unprecedentedly changing their “not guilty” pleas to “guilty” after hearing the strength of the prosecution’s case. They were sentenced in time to 40 years in prison.

Justice after five years and counting

The alleged mastermind of the killing – hotelier and casino boss Jorgen Fenech – remains in pre-trial detention after being arrested in November 2019 while trying to flee Malta on his yacht when he learned he was about to be arrested.

Vincent Muscat, who acted as a lookout for the Degiorgio family, received a reduced 15-year sentence in a plea deal that forced him to become a state’s witness. The self-confessed middleman between Fenech and Degiorgios, Melvin Teuma, was pardoned for a number of crimes in exchange for his testimony against the perpetrators.

Robert Agius, also known as Ta Maxar, and Jamie Vella are also accused of providing the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. Both have maintained their innocence and also remain in pre-trial detention.

It also took five full years for the government to come up with new legislation to protect the press after the assassination, a failed exercise that the government tried to push through parliament as a fait accompli.

Earlier in the afternoon, hundreds of people gathered with members of Caruana Galizia’s family at the site of the murder in Bidnia for a memorial, including European Parliament President Roberta Mezzola and anti-mafia activist Maria Falcone, as well as former Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil and MEP David Cash register.

Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Charles Scikluna earlier in the morning at Bidnija Chapel.

The Sunday demonstration

Sunday’s demonstration for justice started at 18:30 in front of the parliament and went to the courts, where a vigil was held in front of the memorial of Caruana Galizia.

He was approached by: the President of the European Parliament Roberta Mezzola, the President of Repubblica Robert Aquilina, the sister of murdered Italian anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone – Maria Falcone, Caoilfion Gallagher – a lawyer at human rights and civil liberties specialists Doughty Street Chambers, who played an important role in the fight for justice for Caruana Galizia; Co-founder and president of the Associazione Culturale Leali delle Notizie di Ronchi dei Legionari, Luca Perino, Head of the EU and Balkans Bureau of Reporters Without Borders Pavol Salai, The Guardian and Observer investigative journalist Karol Cadwaladr, Occupy Justice activist Luiselle Vasallo and activist and blogger Manuel Delia.

In her speech, European Parliament President Roberta Mezzola accused the government of still not respecting the work of journalists five years after Caruana Galizia’s murder.

The government, she said, continues to “withhold information, discriminate in how its advertising is distributed, deny interviews to independent media and allow its people to harass journalists, harass journalists on social media.”

Praising Caruana Galizia for always fulfilling her duties and doing the right thing, Mezzola called on the government to embrace Daphne’s values ​​of transparency and fairness.

Caruana Galizia, Mezzola said, was a “woman of steel” in her fight against corruption “with just a laptop”.

After Caruana Galizia’s death, there was an “earthquake,” Mezzola said, that shook the country and Europe: “When she was killed, she was not alone. When she was killed, her voice was not silenced, but it grew louder. Daphne is alive today in each of us. Today we are the voice of Daphne.”

Speaking about Friday’s surprise guilty plea by Caruana Galizia’s killers, RSF’s Pavol Salai said: “When we left the courtroom, we felt hope. There is palpable hope that justice can be served for the murder of a journalist. We still need full justice – for the family, for the Maltese journalists, for the country. Malta needs this for its own healing.

“Today, all eyes are on Malta. Can he convict the supervisor? Will he be able to hold everyone responsible for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia accountable?

“It will also depend on us, on each one of us.

Addressing the thorny issue of the government’s draft press laws, he noted how “A public inquiry was conducted. But the most important recommendations remained on paper. Invoices have been submitted. But there has been no real public consultation.

Instead of transparency, there was more opacity.”

The media, which fights for the right to freedom of information in the public interest, he said, “is inundated with lawsuits.

“Instead of ambitious politics, we are witnessing petty politics. Maltese politicians should have learned their lesson, but they are clinging to a system that has allowed the worst to happen.

“We expect the government to act in the public interest, but it only does so under pressure. Even the European Union adopted new measures and proposed new legislation, learning from the Daphne case.

“But in Malta, too little too late has been done a full five years later.”

Regarding the ongoing fight for justice for Caruana Galizia, Salai quoted Daphne’s last taped interview when asked why she continues to work as a journalist despite all the threats she had noted, “I really hate to give up.”

“And we won’t either,” he promised.

Repubblika president Robert Aquilina also pledged: “We will continue to fight by any means necessary to keep Daphne alive, ensuring that justice is served for the corruption she exposed and for which she was killed.”

He said new sources have come forward with more evidence of dereliction of duty by Police Commissioner Angelo Gaffa, Deputy Police Commissioner Alexandra Mamo and Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg, who are allowing “criminal millionaires to walk around continuing to disrupt the country”.

“We will never tire of saying that Daphne was killed because of the corruption, the corruption that was created in Castile, the corruption that happened under the watch and with the complicity of Joseph Muscat.

“Five years after Daphne’s murder, the country is still dominated by a corrupt system and people who want to obstruct the course of justice.”

“We must find the courage to fight to the end until justice is served and we see our country’s institutions run with integrity.”

Caoilfhionn Gallagher, barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, speaking in London on Sunday, noted how: “While an atmosphere of impunity simmered in Malta, the world stood idly by. The UK and other countries in Europe ignored what was happening under their noses and left Daphne to fend for herself.

“Today, October 16, is also the anniversary of Desmond Tutu being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1984. He once said: ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant steps on a mouse’s tail and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

“Daphne was the mouse. Malta was the elephant. Then the world chose to remain silent. To be neutral. In the decades leading up to her murder, the world did not act to protect her or hold Malta accountable. They failed to act in 2017.

“Five years on, it’s long past time for other countries that claim to believe in the importance of freedom of expression – including the UK and every single country that has joined the Media Freedom Coalition – to act.” Then they failed Daphne.

“Now they must hold Malta accountable and bring about the change that Daphne and Malta’s family need and deserve to happen.”

“These were five years that would never have been part of our country’s history if we had strong institutions that functioned with a sense of duty,” said Luiselle Vassallo of #occupyjustice.“Instead, a journalist was killed. And this is because the institutions closed their eyes and chose not only to ignore but to justify and defend the evil that was exposed and that Daphne Caruana Galizia warned us about.

She invited the prime minister to place a candle and a bouquet of flowers at the site of the protest and, in front of the camera, “give us another soundbite in which you condemn anyone who defamed Daphne Caruana Galizia, during her life or after she was killed.

“Then tell your driver to take you to the party station you run, and once there, order an end once and for all to fascist, perverse and personal attacks on activists and honest citizens.”

“This is a very dangerous time for those who want our country to begin to heal,” said activist and blogger Manuel Delia. “How do we know we are healed?

“The first mistake would be to listen to Robert Abella. This morning he said he had learned from Daphne’s murder and drafted new laws to protect journalists. “But if these laws prove anything, it’s that Robert Abella still hasn’t learned anything from killing Daphne.

“It’s been five years since she was killed, and once the initial shock and anger wears off, motivation sets in.” There are people who say that there is a lot of apathy there or that Maltese people suffer from indifference.

“I do not agree. What we have is omertà: complicity in silence, and anyone who tries to break that omertà will get what is coming to them.”

“The lives of Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and Daphne Caruana Galizia were full, rich and courageous,” said Maria Falcone, activist and sister of slain anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone.

Watching this year mark 30^th after the Italian mafia massacres, she called for new EU-wide anti-mafia legislation to deal with the confiscation of mafia assets.

“To remember Daphne, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, we must start here, from their sacrifice for all of us – for Maltese, for Italians and for all free Europeans.”

“Five years after the terrible attack that claimed the life of Daphne Caruana Galicia, we have come together to demand, strongly and decisively, that she be brought to justice,” said Luca Perino.

He recalled how, in addition to the awards dedicated to Caruana Galizia, Leali delle Notizie commissioned a mural in Ronchi dedicated to the journalist, and in 2019 an honorary “citizenship” was awarded to her son Mathieu Caruana Galizia.

“We remain united and look forward with courage and confidence,” he said. “Let us always remember that ‘When the truth is not free, the truth is not true.’