It was a quiet Monday afternoon like any other when news started to filter through that a bomb had gone off in Bidnija.

What we immediately started to fear was confirmed just minutes later when it became known that the person who was in the car that had been blown up was our colleague, Daphne Caruana Galizia, a regular columnist with our media house for many years. Daphne also administered a blog that was among the most popular websites on the island.

What was clear right from the start was that her assassination would have been an incident that would have changed the country. That same evening, thousands gathered to pay tribute to her. It was the beginning of a civil society movement that has since been active in its criticism on matters pertaining to the rule of law and justice, and not only that.

Malta was no longer the same.

Today, five years later, three men have admitted to their involvement in the heinous crime and have been sentenced to a total of 95 years in prison. Others are facing charges. We do not know if more people were involved; the police continue their investigations.

The arrest of the man now accused of being the mastermind behind the murder also had its political repercussions, bringing about the resignation of then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in what were months of turmoil that shook the nation.

A public inquiry that was held to investigate the assassination found that the State was responsible for what happened on 16 October 2017. The State had failed to understand the real risks to the journalist’s life, and failed to take the necessary steps. The inquiry found that a culture of impunity had been created, and which had also spread to regulatory bodies and the police, leading to the collapse of the rule of law. It concluded that there had been an “orchestrated plan” to neutralise Daphne’s investigative journalism.

The inquiry report said other things, including making recommendations on the restructuring of the media sector, in particular to give the necessary space and protection to journalists in their work.

This brings us to the present days, during which the media, almost in its entirety, is battling with the government over the bills that have been presented in Parliament to reform the media sector.

Since their tabling in the House, the government has been criticised for not holding a wider discussion. Among other things, it received a letter signed by more than 100 journalists who have insisted that the bills as presented are weak. After days of resistance, and following a meeting with the Institute of Maltese Journalists last Thursday, the government has agreed to freeze the bills until a consultation exercise takes place.

The government has not promised it will change its mind. It has not pledged to make any alterations to the bills as they have been presented.

But at least it has agreed to a pause, and will not proceed with its plans until the Committee of Media Experts comes up with a redrawn list of recommendations following the public consultation exercise.

The bone of contention is that the media – that part of the media which does not have strings attached – does not believe that what the government presented is enough. Some of the more important points that were recommended by the committee were ignored by the government, and what was submitted in the media reform bills was a watered-down plan that intended to do little to give journalists the necessary protection and freedom to carry out their tasks.

For one thing, the anti-SLAPP provisions do not go the distance. SLAPP suits are intended to financially cripple journalists and the media houses they work for, the aim being to intimidate them until they are forced to give up. In this regard, what the government is proposing is inadequate to address the situation.

As journalists, we have bought ourselves some time and, once this is over, we do hope that the government will really listen, and present laws that really give journalists the safeguards they need in the course of their profession.

Time that, unfortunately, Daphne Caruana Galizia has no more. Five years ago today, she was silenced. She paid the ultimate price for exposing corruption.

Her legacy lives on through the foundation that was set up in her name. And it has taken five years for her sacrifice to lead to an attempt to offer better protection to the Fourth Estate, whose role it is to inform and also to act as a watchdog.

The door to that “protection” is still closed.

It needs to be opened.