Wrapped up in my thoughts, I stood before the Great Siege monument in Valletta, the place that has become a temporary shrine to Malta's top journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was assassinated by a car bomb on Monday week, leaving the nation in stunned disbelief and still scrambling to respond.

Daphne was no ordinary woman. Her writings have had a profound influence on all her readers and she attracted a massive following equal to none on a local level. Single-handedly, she kept the political class constantly on its toes, and once she got her teeth into a story she wouldn't let it go. Therefore, it's no wonder that she was regarded as a permanent thorn in the side by those who would become the target of her criticism. In the end, however, her mighty pen, analytically incisive and relentlessly scathing, incurred the wrath of cold-blooded brutes against whom she did not stand a chance.

Her sudden death was a shock to many, but only a few were surprised. I stood there, at the candlelit shrine for a long while gazing at the bouquets of flowers and tributes laid beneath her photograph. I held back the tears back as the reality sank in further. All those horrid labels that she had been tagged with, like hate blogger and queen of bile, flooded back into my mind. Her style was controversial indeed, but no amount of name-calling moved her one bit. The lady was not for turning and I wish I had her courage.

And in a strange twist of irony, many of Daphne's devoted followers had recently turned on her like a pack of wolves, obviously dismayed at the startling revelations that were emerging from her blog that left several of her readers understandably alarmed. Her message was striking home too painfully and it was imperative that they shoot the messenger. And so they did... hurling insults at her in the social media with much gusto and more passion.

Sadly, these people never really understood what Daphne stood for. And it also seems to be above their understanding to grasp that many Maltese people do aspire to live in a society that elects a government and expects it to be fully democratic and entirely accountable in the execution of its duties. A government that fiercely upholds the core principles of the European Union among which are pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and where equality between women and men prevail.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was often portrayed as fearless but with the benefit of hindsight, I look back and think of how afraid she would have felt once she got the picture of the extent of the real danger to which she had become exposed. Notwithstanding, she continued to stick her neck out in the fight for political accountability, for integrity in public life and for an open and free society, while others kept their heads down and their mouths shut.

Did she have the support of all those who religiously read her Running Commentary? Clearly not. The words written by Manuel Delia on his blog that awful Monday ring horribly true: "We have left the sole defender of our freedom to speak for us alone, and we have let her die alone."

Rest in peace dear Daphne. I wish I had your courage.

Vikki Micallef