Today is six months since Malta investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb just metres from her home. A group of investigative journalists from across Europe have used the anniversary to announce they intend to continue her work.
ADVERTISEMENTReporters from across Europe have got together to carry on the work of an investigative journalist murdered six months ago today.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, from Malta, was murdered by a car bomb just metres from her home on October 16 last year.
Caruana Galizia — in her a brazen and uncompromising style — used her blog to allege corruption in Malta.
The Daphne Project began around a month after her murder and is coordinated by Paris-based organised Forbidden Stories, which seeks to continue the work of killed, imprisoned or otherwise incapacitated.
It involves 45 journalists from across Europe and aims to carry on Caruana Galizia’s investigative work in Malta.
The group, working alongside the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, is set to reveal its first findings tomorrow, Tuesday, April 16.
Anuska Delic, an investigative journalist and co-ordinator of the Daphne Project, told Euronews: “It’s very important that we send a message of a united front against whoever is trying to silence journalists.
“It’s also important to send the message that: ‘you can silence one of us but many more will follow and whatever you are trying to hide is just going to get more and more traction and attention’.
“This is probably the only antidote we have as journalists against this rather new state where we are literally physically threatened.”
Caruana Galizia was among three high-profile murders of journalists in Europe over the last year.
Swedish journalist Kim Wall was found murdered in Copenhagen last August while Slovak investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend were shot dead in February of this year.
“Simply put, Europe is at a crossroads,” added Delic. “Independent media and independent voices seem to be increasingly silenced in Europe. We’ve had three killings of European journalists in the past year.”
Delic’s comments come as Malta’s capital Valetta woke to satirical film posters about alleged corruption on the Mediterranean island.
The posters doctored real film titles — such Dial M for Murder, Goodfellas and Lord of the Flies — to attack Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his allies.
OccupyJustice in Malta, the group behind them, said six months on it was still unclear who commissioned the killing.
Three men have been charged with Caruana Galizia’s but police have yet to give a motive.