Why we are endorsing the solidarity protest

It will be 107 months on Wednesday since Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered in a powerful car bomb outside her Bidnija house.

It should have been a vigil that brings partial closure, at least to her family, in the knowledge that those who orchestrated Daphne’s murder and executed it were serving time. Justice would have been served and the candles, flowers and speeches would be telling a story of healing.

Instead, on Wednesday, a solidarity protest will be held because Yorgen Fenech’s acquittal has left the chapter unfinished. Today, the men who carried out the hit and procured the bomb are in jail but the only person indicted for commissioning the assassination is a free man. Daphne’s murder remains unresolved.

The protest that will start at 7pm in front of parliament and march towards the Great Siege Memorial is organised by Repubblika and Occupy Justice but enjoys the support of many other NGOs, including media organisations. MaltaToday is endorsing the protest and urges people of different political persuasions and from all walks of life to attend and show solidarity with Daphne’s family.

This leader understands those who may have felt aggrieved or disagreed with what Daphne wrote. MaltaToday was also a critic of her style and commentary. But no disagreement can be big enough to ever justify Daphne’s murder. Daphne was no saint but those who eliminated her did so because her investigations were going to expose their wrongdoing.

This is why the verdict in the trial of Yorgen Fenech has created shock, anger and disappointment. While respecting the constitutional role of the jury and the authority of the court, it is perfectly legitimate for us not to agree with the verdict. And in any case, the final word has not yet been said, given the attorney general’s decision to appeal.

Wednesday’s protest is not about overturning the verdict through public or political pressure but an affirmation that the pursuit of truth, accountability and reform does not end with Fenech’s acquittal.

For, although the trial has ended, Malta’s reckoning has not. Daphne’s assassination raises much wider questions that cannot be resolved in the courtroom. The Caruana Galizia Public Inquiry established the state’s responsibility for creating a culture of impunity that ultimately led to Daphne’s murder.

In the aftermath of Fenech’s acquittal some have tried to question the public inquiry’s credibility, casting doubt on the three judges who presided over it and brushing off its recommendations. Only those who have something to hide or be ashamed of will go down this road. To these people we quote what Labour MP and parliamentary Whip Naomi Cachia told the Council of Europe’s Legal Affairs Committee in Paris last Wednesday: “A journalist murdered for her work cannot become a victim for a second time through complacency, resignation, or forgetfulness.”

The truth is that the circumstances surrounding Daphne’s assassination exposed the dangerous proximity of political power, economic power, corruption and criminality. None of this disappears with an acquittal. This is a reckoning that Malta has long postponed.

And while we do not need a substitute theory of the murder from that presented by the prosecution against Yorgen Fenech, the evidence presented in court raises serious questions about the conduct of other powerful people, individuals who hold or held public office, not least Keith Schembri. Those questions require serious investigation and accountability to be shouldered.

People in authority and holders of public office should know that accountability is not simply a question of criminal responsibility. There are ethical and administrative shortcomings, which do not necessarily constitute criminal behaviour but open the door to mistrust, favouritism and injustice. Wednesday’s protest is also about this—the need for decency and fairness.

But there is also a higher calling for all people of goodwill. Democracy depends on citizens, journalists, businesses and public officials refusing to engage in corruption, intimidation, dishonesty and omertà. In the words of the Reverend Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Fenech’s verdict settles the criminal charges decided in that trial but it does not settle the political and institutional meaning of what the evidence exposed and which requires all people of goodwill to stand up and demand better governance and a stronger democracy.

The defence of democracy can never stop. This is why government must implement the reforms Malta still needs, including the recommendations of the public inquiry and effective protection for journalists. Institutions must confront corruption and organised crime. Political leaders must accept accountability. Businesses must choose integrity over convenience and profit. Citizens must refuse omertà, support independent journalism and reject the normalisation of corruption. Civil society must continue to organise, scrutinise, speak and act.

Ultimately, we endorse Wednesday’s protest because it is an act of solidarity with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family. For nine years they have endured a personal trauma. But alongside the human suffering they extended their fight for justice beyond Daphne and made it a fight for journalists, institutional reform, accountability, and a better democracy.

That fight should belong to us all—journalists, activists, whistleblowers, conscientious public officials and citizens who refuse to accept corruption and impunity as inevitable.