Daphne Caruana Galizia has been posthumously awarded the 2018 “Nothing but the truth” prize by the Giuseppe Fava Foundation, the first non-Italian and the first woman to receive the award. The prize is presented annually on 5th January, the anniversary of Giuseppe Fava’s death. Past recipients of the award include Giovanni Tizian, Lirio Abbate, Maurizio Chierici, Roberto Morrione, and Fabrizio Gatti, among others.
The prize carries the following citation:
“In memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia, whose violent and cruel death at the hands of mafia-like figures, was the last contribution of a life dedicated to seeking the truth with commitment, sacrifice, dignity and coherence. From a small nation, Daphne showed the world how every journalist capable of seeking out and telling the truth is indispensable to civil and democratic development and unbearable to corruption and dictatorship.”
The 34th annual commemoration of Giuseppe Fava began with a gathering of residents of Catania in via Giuseppe Fava, where flowers were laid beneath the marble plaque marking the place where Fava’s was assassinated. The ceremony was followed by a theatre screening of the trailer of “Prima che la notte”, a film about Giuseppe Fava which will be broadcast on RAI TV, and a discussion with the director Daniele Vicari, and Michele Gambino and Claudio Fava who wrote the book which inspired the film.
At the end of the debate, the Giuseppe Fava Foundation presented the “Nothing but the truth” award in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Foundation was thanked with words Daphne Caruana Galizia had published on her blog on 5 June 2017: “when people taunt you or criticise you for being “negative” or for failing to go with their flow, or for not adopting an attitude of benign tolerance to their excesses, bear in mind always that they, and not you, are the ones who are wrong”, reflecting Fava’s life motto, "is there any use in living if you don't have the courage to fight?"
Giuseppe Fava, also known as Pippo, was an Italian writer, investigative journalist, playwright, and antimafia activist. In 1983, Fava and his team of independent journalists founded the progressive monthly magazine I Siciliani ("The Sicilians"), which denounced the connections between Mafia, politics and business in Catania. On the night of 5th January 1984, while waiting in his car for his granddaughter to finish her theatre rehearsal, Giuseppe Fava was shot dead by the mafia. His family had to fight for justice for years. As his son, Claudio Fava said last night "First they killed him, then they tried to kill his memory with lies and calumny." Eventually Fava’s killers, and the mandators and their intermediaries were found, convicted, and sentenced to prison. The Giuseppe Fava Foundation now works to preserve his legacy.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb on 16 October 2017. Three men will be facing a trial by jury for the murder.