The country today bids farewell to one of its best known and most daring journalists. Daphne’s body will finally be laid to rest but her indomitable spirit will live on in the thousands she inspired both in her life and death.

Much has been said about the woman who was beloved and despised in equal measure. The truth is she was a voice for all who stand for good governance and against corruption. She was relentless in her determination to show people the ugly side of politics, especially when it mingles with the even darker side of business.

Few journalists dared venture as far as she did, but despite her occasional shortcomings, most notably the Egrant debacle, where serious accusations were not backed up with concrete proof,  most journalists looked, and still look at Daphne with a sense of awe and admiration.

Some said that the bomb that went off underneath hear car on 16 October silenced Malta’s only voice against corruption. That is not necessarily true. Many journalists in the independent media expose cases of corruption, nepotism and bad governance on a weekly basis. But Daphne’s death has certainly strengthened our resolve and determination to step up the fight against all that is wrong in this country.

The media is and will surely become and even more important pillar of society, exposing the weaknesses and failures of our institutions.

But Daphne’s assassination did not only affect people in the media trade. Her death has triggered an outcry among the normal citizens in our society. Some have insisted that the events organized by the Civil Society Network were tinged by partisan politics, that some of those who addressed these events are too close to political parties. But there is a genuine movement out there wishing for things to change. People in their homes, even those who did not join the rallies and protests, feel that the country cannot keep going down this path.

A couple of weeks back an unknown individual placed a handwritten note in the field where Daphne’s car was blown up, which reads: "What you wrote and what you uncovered cannot be blown away." That is exactly the feeling out there: that Daphne’s work was not in vain and that people will demand justice and only the highest of standards from our politicians.

It seems that the only section of people that have not yet been truly moved by Daphne’s murder are our politicians, who continue to quarrel and fight for political mileage in the wake of this horrible tragedy. It was very disappointing to see, just this Monday during a much anticipated Parliamentary debate, that the government will not even acknowledge that the institutions have been eroded and that they need urgent fixing.

Let us hope that the funeral today, and the presence of thousands who are expected to pay their last respects to Daphne, will finally move our parliamentarians to act to put this country back on the right path.