Son of murdered Maltese journalist on justice
Paul Caruana Galizia: 鈥淚 think we鈥檒l be in the courts for the rest of our lives鈥�
Progress on tackling corruption in Malta hasn鈥檛 been 鈥榝ast鈥� or 鈥榙eep enough鈥� the son of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has told the 麻豆社 six years on from her assassination.
In a new book, Paul Caruana Galizia writes about his mother鈥檚 life and the ongoing campaign for justice since she was killed by a car bomb in 2017.
Daphne was Malta鈥檚 most well-known newspaper columnist and blogger. Her work focused on exposing systematic corruption and abuse of power in the small island nation.
So far, three people have been convicted of her murder. Other cases are ongoing.
One of Malta鈥檚 richest businessmen, Yorgen Fenech, has been charged with conspiracy to murder and is expected to stand trial next year. Prosecutors allege he was the mastermind behind the assassination. He denies the charges.
Caruana Galizia said, 鈥淚 thought writing about her murder would be the difficult thing for all the obvious and gruesome reasons but in the end what proved the hardest was learning about her life鈥hat made her a journalist, the kind of country she grew up in.鈥�
A pioneer in her field, Daphne was the first female columnist in the country and the first journalist to publish articles under her down name.
鈥淗er editor would get comments like who is this person, is her father writing her columns for her, is her husband writing her columns for her?鈥�, he said.
A public inquiry into her death concluded in 2021 finding that the state had to 鈥渟houlder responsibility鈥� because it had created an 鈥渁tmosphere of impunity鈥� and had failed to take reasonable steps to protect her.
鈥淭here are these moments where you get small measures of justice, prosecutions, hopefully convictions鈥�, Caruana Galizia said, 鈥渂ut at the end of the day nothing will return her to us."
