The cold-blooded murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia six days ago has left the country reeling in shock and horror, and rightly so. This was no ordinary murder and the days following it have been no ordinary times for the country. 

Malta has seen its fair share of murders and, in particular, car bombs, over recent years. But these crimes, as horrendous and ghastly as each and every one of them has been, have by and large been considered the result of gangland warfare. Caruana Galizia’s murder, considering its ferocity and the materials used, was different. Hers was no gangland killing. Hers was a murder that stretched beyond the criminal sphere and so viciously attacked not only her and her family, but also the very roots of the country’s very democracy. Hers was an assassination.

While nothing can be discounted at this early stage of investigations, it can be safely assumed that given the nature of Caruana Galizia’s work it appears more than likely that someone was upset by, or was becoming upset by, her probing. The objective was not to send her a mere warning; it was very clearly aimed at silencing her for good.

The elimination of the country’s foremost investigative journalist was not just an attack on a person but on a pillar of our democracy, the fourth estate. It was an attempt to silence not only Caruana Galizia but to silence the whole of the media, to beat it into submission and into self-censorship.

This will not happen. The whole of the country’s media gathered this week to drive the point home to whomever would seek to muzzle the media and we will state it again as clearly as possible: We will not succumb.

We will not be cowed, we will not be silenced, we will not be afraid and we will not be swayed from our sacrosanct duties to the public by this heinous assault on the freedom of the media, a freedom that Caruana Galizia lived by and which she most likely died by.

Today the country’s media houses unite for a common cause and with a common message: The pen conquers fear. This is an unqualified condemnation of the assassination of Caruana Galizia, it is a call to arms to every journalist in the country, and it is a call to action to the public at large to support the type of journalism that Caruana Galizia in her investigations was the standard bearer. It is a call to everyone to stand up and be part of the change that Caruana Galizia tried so hard to catalyse.

Today’s demonstration in Valletta would be a good place to start answering that call. The demonstration is apolitical and will call for justice for Caruana Galizia. This is not about one party or another, it is not about the more divisive contents of Caruana Galizia’s body of work, it is a clarion call for justice and it is a manifestation of the national conscience.

And finally, a note about the facing page, on which for the second time this week, and for the last time, we have paid our own small tribute to Caruana Galizia. This page has been one of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s two weekly column slots at The Malta Independent for what seems to have been time immemorial. Last Sunday was her last column. The next day one of the brightest journalistic lights that has ever shone on this land was cruelly and callously snuffed out.

Today her page has been intentionally left blank as a tribute to her work. And this page will, in all honesty, be difficult to fill in the future. The fact of the matter is that although the page will be filled in future, no one will ever be able to take Caruana Galizia’s place.

Over the years, The Malta Independent has been proud to call Caruana Galizia one of our own. Her legacy will live on and so will her indomitable and inextinguishable spirit.

It is now more than ever that the country as a whole needs to unite to provide the extraordinary response required to an extraordinary murder in honour of not only Caruana Galizia’s memory but in honour of the underlying principles that make this country a democracy that she fought so assiduously to defend.