Caruana Galizia family call on PA to cease and desist from removing banners

Daphne Caruana Galizia’s widower and sons have filed a judicial letter calling on the Planning Authority to cease and desist from removing banners calling for justice 

Murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s widower and sons have filed a judicial letter calling on the Planning Authority to cease and desist from removing banners critical of the government from public spaces.

Lawyer Peter Caruana Galizia and his sons Matthew, Andrew and Paul filed the judicial letter in the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, against the Planning Authority.

In it, they refer to enforcement notice EC/00068/18 issued on 31-33 Old Bakery Street Valletta against a banner asking why OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi were not in prison, why the prime minster's wife was not being investigated, and who paid for Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder. The banner was removed on Sunday. Previously, a similar banner was also removed on 6 April.

The banner’s removal amounted to interference in the fundamental right to express themselves on a matter of political controversy and which deals with public policy as well as their right to express their opinion in public without disproportionate interference, argued the murdered journalist’s family.

The manner in which the enforcement notice was issued and the removal of the banner was done in a way which left the plaintiffs “no form of proper hearing and due process.”

Lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia, Jason Azzopardi and Eve Borg Costanzi signed the letter.