Press freedom NGOs in Malta next week, one year after Caruana Galizia murder

Six NGOs will be visiting Malta on a fact-finding exercise on the murder, and on the free expression climate on the island • A number of events are planned locally and abroad next week, a year since Caruana Galizia was executed

Next week marks a year since journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally murdered in a car bomb explosion, with a number of events planned in Malta and abroad
Next week marks a year since journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally murdered in a car bomb explosion, with a number of events planned in Malta and abroad

A group of international press freedom and freedom of expression NGOs will be in Malta next week to conduct a fact-finding exercise into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, one year after her execution.

The NGOs will be visiting from 15 to 17 October, and will be supporting local civil society’s actions marking a year since the assassination and looking into the climate of free expression on the island.

Meetings with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, other government officials, and a wide range of civil society stakeholders are planned, too.

In all, six NGOs - Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists, the International Press Institute and PEN International - will be coming.

March in Valletta, minute of silence in Berlin

Activist group #OccupyJustice are organising a march, demanding for justice and truth in connection with the murder, in Valletta on 14 October at 4pm.

A minute of silence will subsequently be held, on 16 October at 2.30pm, outside the Maltese embassy in Berlin, one year to the day Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb explosion.

The ECPMF, co-organising the event with journalist union Deutscher Journalisten-Verband, noted that one year on, it is still unclear who is responsible for the murder, and who ordered it.

Vigils are also being held in London and Brussels.

Caruana Galizia honoured at Reporters Memorial

A memorial stone in honour of the slain journalist was unveiled at the War Reporters Memorial in Bayeux, northern France, yesterday.

The annual ceremony - now in its 12th edition and part of the Bayeux-Calvados-Normandy Awards for War Correspondents - paid tribute to journalists who were killed in the past year.

Caruana Galizia’s family, as well as that of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was also murdered, participated in the ceremony.