Daphne Caruana Galizia may have been laid to rest yesterday, the country may have had its national day of mourning, and well wishers may have paid their final respects.  But the fact of the matter is that yesterday’s events did not constitute a final farewell. 

Far from it. 

How can there be a final farewell to a person who will live on for eternity through the writing that she left behind, and when thousands have been inspired by her voice to find their own voices and to make them heard?

No, yesterday’s was not a final farewell.

The legacy that Caruana Galizia left behind – the good, the bad and the ugly of it – has left an indelible stamp on the country, and the tragic and shocking circumstances of her murder will continue to shape things for years to come.

The murder has shaken Malta and Europe.  But how many of us, even though we have recoiled in horror at her murder, have realised that not only was a homicide perpetrated on 16 October but also an attempted murder of the real media in Malta?  How many of us have really grasped the gravity of the crimes perpetrated that day?

How many journalists will, after this, have the courage to go after the stories that shake the powers that be to their foundations?  The kind of stories that serve the national as opposed to the personal interest, the kind of stories that some would rather see remain buried.  The kind of stories that Caruana Galizia had a penchant for.

Yesterday, at Caruana Galizia’s funeral, this editorialist was asked by a former colleague, a person who has since moved on from the hard news landscape: ‘How are you still in this line of business after this?’

The question was an innocent and a logical one aimed at a person with a young family and who has stuck his neck out perhaps more often than many of his peers over the course of his career. 

After Caruana Galizia was eliminated in what was clearly a ‘shock and awe’ assassination aimed at dissuading others from treading the minefields that she made her stomping grounds, there were undoubtedly many among the ranks of Malta’s journalists how pondered whether to throw in the towel, revert to reporting what has been spoon fed to us…or to redouble our efforts.

If the country’s real media does anything but the latter, the terrorists who so cruelly took Caruana Galizia’s life will have won.  If the country’s media slinks back into its shell, the shell that Caruana Galizia held in such disdain, the terrorists will have won. 

We, the free press, must not let that happen.  We must continue the fight that Caruana Galizia in so many ways symbolises: the fight for fair, free and good governance, the fight against corruption and sleaze and the fight to open people’s eyes to the fact that we as a nation are better than the mediocrity of our government and politicians.

We the free press must absolutely redouble our efforts.

Rarely have such long and repeated standing ovations been seen and heard at funerals as those witnessed yesterday in Mosta.  It was, in a way, the hero’s send-off that Caruana Galizia deserved, the echoes of which will resonate for a long, long time to come.

Yesterday was not a final farewell.  Daphne’s voice lives on and her fight will continue.  That is because it was not only her fight but the fight of so many likeminded people.

Daphne, may you rest in peace.  But in that peace, be assured that your colleagues in the free press will not rest until justice in your respect is served.