There is no political will to address the challenges identified by the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry, Repubblika President Robert Aquilina said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference in front of the Auberge de Castille in Valletta, Aquilina said how a year passed since the publishing of the Caruana Galizia Inquiry and this year had been lost, as the government wanted it to be.
“They want people to forget that a journalist was killed in this country. Or rather they want people to think that the fact that a journalist was killed here is not so important,” he said.
Aquilina said that the NGO recognises, once the inquiry was published, the PM had apologized to the family, said he learned the lessons he had to learn and promised to pay attention and act according to what the inquiry said. Yet the government has still not done anything tangible to implement the recommendations of the inquiry.
Aquilina said the public inquiry recommended that the Maltese State formally and publicly acknowledge the failures of the public administration that contributed to Daphne's assassination. Nothing had been done in this regard but, on the contrary, the “government made a PR campaign to reverse any impression of any acceptance of responsibility on its part.”
Regarding the protection of journalists, Aquilina said despite the government appointing a group of experts to tackle concerned recommendations, it worked behind closed doors so “we do not know anything about the recommendations they made.”
Additionally, he explained how the Inquiry calls for a law that fights financial crimes through Unexplained Wealth Orders, yet nothing has been done.
“A year later, with or without those amendments, impunity is still ruling. Impunity still reigns,” he said.
Aquilina explained how the PL's media went on campaigns that were intended to isolate and denigrate journalists and activists, while PBS systematically ignored news that could put the government in a bad light and thus created the false and dangerous narrative that independent journalists are liars.
On the rest of the recommendations of the public inquiry, the government did absolutely nothing, he said.
“In parliament the PM even ridiculed the idea of introducing anti-mafia legislation. By saying that, the PM even indirectly implied that the authors of the inquiry report are people who want Malta to be called a ‘mafia state,'" he said.
“With this lack of action by Robert Abela, our country cannot start walking on the path towards being healed,” he said.