Following this week’s announced arrests of ten suspects in Malta’s investigation into anti-corruption journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder on 16 October, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reiterated its call for a full and independent investigation to bring those responsible to justice.

“Under European Union pressure for results, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced on 4 December that ten suspects had been arrested. They were the first arrests in the case, in which the government has been accused of both political interference and incompetence.

RSF noted that Caruana Galizia’s family had issued a statement “expressing astonishment that the arrests were announced by the prime minister and not by the police, as should be the case in this kind of investigation.”

“In the nearly two months since Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death, the authorities have been unable to show that they are conducting their investigation in an impartial manner, so we support the family’s request and we call for an independent international investigation to establish all the facts of her shocking murder,” said Pauline Adès-Mével, the head of RSF’s EU-Balkans desk.

Malta is currently ranked 47th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.