Malta has fallen 0.24 points in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2017, the largest drop of any country in Western Europe.

This is largely as a result of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia last October.

“Malta’s score has slipped following the unresolved murder in October 2017 of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an anti-corruption blogger, which has raised questions about the rule of law and the authorities’ willingness to investigate sensitive crimes,” the comprehensive report said.

Malta still ranks as a full democracy, in 17th place out of the 19 countries in this category. It had a score of 8.15, compared to leader Norway which had a score of 9.87.

Malta’s score had been 8.39 for the three previous years, and has alternated between scores of 8.28 and 8.39 for over 10 years.

Malta’s ranking for media freedom was considerably lower with a score of 8, in 31st place, and categorised as ‘partly free’.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories.

Norway once again tops the Democracy Index global ranking in 2017, followed by Iceland and Sweden taking second and third place.

 

PN reaction

Reacting, the Nationalist Party said that instead of being the best in Europe, Malta now finds itself in its worst ever ranking in the democracy index.

This was a result of the attack on press freedom under Joseph Muscat’s government.

The report, the PN said, found that Malta was one of only four EU countries that did not have full press freedom.