JournalismPakistan.com | Published 8 years ago
Join our WhatsApp channel
VALLETTA, Malta - Several thousand Maltese citizens rallied Sunday to honor an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb, but the prime minister and opposition leader who were chief targets of Daphne Caruana Galizia's reporting stayed away from the gathering.
Participants at the rally in Malta's capital, Valletta, placed flowers at the foot of a memorial to the 53-year-old reporter that sprang up opposite the law court building after her Oct. 16 slaying.
Some wore T-shirts or carried placards emblazoned with words from Caruana Galizia's final blog post: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate" in the European Union nation of some 400,000 people.
Police removed a banner describing Malta as a "Mafia state."
Hundreds of participants later held a sit-in outside police headquarters, demanding the resignation of Malta's police commissioner. Some hurled tomatoes, cakes and coins against an enlarged photograph of the commissioner spread out on the street.
The homicide of a journalist who devoted her career to exposing wrong-doing in Malta and raised her three sons there united many of the nation's oft-squabbling politicians, at least for a day.
Caruana Galizia had repeatedly criticized police and judicial officials.
Malta's two dominant political forces, the ruling Labor and opposition Nationalist parties, participated in the rally which was organized to press demands for justice in her slaying.
But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told his Labor party's radio station a few hours before the event's start time that he wouldn't attend because he knew the anti-corruption reporter's family didn't want him to be there.
"I know where I should be and where I should not be. I am not a hypocrite and I recognize the signs," Muscat said, adding that he supported the rally's goals of call for justice and national unity.
Nationalist leader Adrian Delia also skipped the rally, saying he didn't want to "stir controversy."
"Today is not about me, but about the rule of law and democracy," Delia told reporters.
Muscat and Delia, while fierce political rivals, have another thing in common: Both brought libel lawsuits against Caruana Galizia. Delia withdrew his pending libel cases last week after her killing.
Caruana Galizia's family has refused to endorse the government's offer of a 1 million euro ($1.18 million) reward and full protection to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of her killer or killers.
Instead, the family, which includes a son who is an investigative journalist himself, has demanded that Muscat resign. In their quest for a serious and efficient investigation, Caruana Galizia's husband and children also want Malta's top police office and attorney general replaced.
"The killers decided to silence her, but they won't silence her spirit, they won't silence us," Christophe Deloire, a French journalist from the journalism advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders, said. "From us they will not have more than one minute of silence."
On Sunday morning, all seven national newspapers had their front pages black in Caruana Galizia's memory. Printed in bold letters against the black backgrounds were the words: "The pen conquers fear."
Just before her death, Caruana Galizia had posted on her closely followed the blog, Running Commentary, that there were "crooks everywhere" in Malta. The island nation has a reputation as a tax haven in the European Union and has attracted companies and money from outside Europe.
The journalist focused her reporting for years on investigating political corruption and scandals and reported on Maltese mobsters and the island's drug trafficking. She also wrote about Maltese links to the so-called Panama Papers leaks about offshore financial havens.
After the rally ended, several hundred participants walked to police headquarters, and sat in the street outside shouting "Shame on you!" and "Resign!
Malta President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca received a delegation from the Civil Society Network, a non-partisan organization of university professors, businessmen, opinion writers and authors in Malta.
The car bombing was "an attack on all of us, every single one of us," Coleiro Preca told them. "We need to see how we are going to work together. We need to unite to have the reform that is needed." - AP/Photo: AP
November 05, 2025: PTI’s Faisal Chaudhry’s witty reply to Gharidah Farooqi on GTV’s “G for Gharidah” goes viral as a clip from their debate over the 27th Amendment sparks reactions online.
November 05, 2025: Digital platform Nukta lays off 37 employees in Pakistan, including journalists and producers, highlighting the financial struggles facing new media ventures in a shrinking job market.
November 04, 2025: Talat Hussain denies airing the viral clip showing Sher Afzal Marwat’s vulgar remark, saying it was not part of his Samaa TV show.
November 03, 2025: PFUJ recalls November 3, 2007, as Pakistan’s darkest day under Musharraf, urging protection for journalists and the abolition of laws threatening press freedom.
November 02, 2025: PFUJ urges Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to end Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and ensure their safety and press freedom.
November 02, 2025: Impunity for crimes against journalists deepens worldwide as Pakistan reports a 60 percent surge in attacks and weak enforcement of safety laws.
November 01, 2025: Pakistan Press Foundation reports 137 attacks on journalists in 2025, highlighting rising threats, legal harassment, and censorship on the International Day to End Impunity.
November 01, 2025: A viral Samaa TV clip featuring MNA Sher Afzal Marwat’s crude remarks and Talat Hussain’s laughter raises questions about the declining ethics of Pakistani television.
November 05, 2025 The Pulitzer Center is offering global reporting grants for journalists worldwide, funding high-impact projects on underreported issues with rolling applications in 2025.
November 04, 2025 Journalist Rana Ayyub receives death threats over calls demanding a column on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as CPJ urges swift action to protect journalists in India.
November 04, 2025 TV8 journalist Mariana Rata in Moldova receives a death threat after interviewing politician Renato Usatii on-air, raising concerns about journalist safety.
November 03, 2025 Global journalist unions condemn the Indonesian agriculture minister’s lawsuit against Tempo, calling it a threat to press freedom and demanding that the case be withdrawn.
November 02, 2025 Independent outlet All About Macau to halt print and online operations amid rising pressure, financial strain, and legal threats, sparking press freedom concerns in the city.