Tomorrow, Malta will be commemorating six years since the assassination of prolific Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, with a march to be held in Valletta, ending with a vigil in front of the Great Siege Monument, which has served as a makeshift memorial for her since her death.

Caruana Galizia’s murder by a car bomb near her Bidnija home in October 2017 sent shockwaves and sparked a series of events which have significantly impacted both Malta’s political landscape, and the state of media freedom.

The journalist’s murder drew global outrage and condemnation, and also triggered widespread protests in Malta.

Journalists and activists around the world demanded justice for Caruana Galizia and an end to impunity for attacks on the press, and days after her death, thousands, including journalists from Malta’s media houses, gathered in Valletta in a show of solidarity, and to honour the slain journalist.

The Civil Society Network was founded in the wake of the murder, and it called for the removal of the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General and for them to be replaced with two other nominees approved by two-thirds of Parliament.

Experts from across the globe, including the FBI, flew in to aid the investigation. On 5 December, 2017, Vince Muscat, (55) known as 'il-Kohhu', Alfred Degiorgio, (52) 'il-Fulu' and George Degiorgio, (54) 'ic-Ciniz' were charged with carrying out the murder of Caruana Galizia with a bomb attached to her car.

The hearing of the compilation of evidence experienced several delays, as two magistrates had to recuse themselves from the case due to conflicts of interest, or due to articles written about them by Caruana Galizia.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit took over the case in December 2017, ruling that there was enough prima facie evidence for the accused to stand trial for the murder charges presented against them.

In January of 2018, Caruana Galizia’s heirs informed the court that they were to assume all her pending libel cases.

A consortium of 45 journalists from 18 news organisations, including internationally reputable media houses such as The New York Times, The Guardian and Reuters, came together in April 2018 in a project called “The Daphne Project,” to continue the murdered journalist’s most important stories.

Then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had initially refused calls for an independent public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder whilst the magisterial inquiry was still ongoing.

The PN had consistently told government to stop dragging its feet and launch a public independent inquiry into the murder. Almost two years after the assassination, in September 2019, Muscat appointed Judge Emeritus Michael Mallia to preside over the public inquiry into the murder.

The Commission was initially composed of former Dean of the Faculty of Law and constitutional expert Professor Ian Refalo and forensic expert Dr Anthony Abela Medici. The latter two were subsequently replaced by Judge Abigail Lofaro and former Chief Justice Joseph Said Pullicino after complaints by the journalist’s family.

The rule of law in Malta was heavily criticised by several institutions across Europe, including a Council of Europe report in June 2019, which was approved with 72 votes in favour, 18 against and three abstentions.  This report looked primarily into the assassination of Caruana Galizia, but noted that the weaknesses of the rule of law in general and the criminal justice system in particular are directly relevant to its analysis of the authorities’ response to the journalist’s brutal murder.

Over the years the European Parliament also called on the Maltese government several times to bring all those involved in the murder to justice. The EP also urged the government to investigate all allegations of corruption and fraud.

Pressure mounted on Muscat to resign amid public protests over the killing. He eventually stepped down, and Robert Abela succeeded him as Prime Minister.

In later developments, Vince Muscat pleaded guilty to her murder in early 2021, receiving a 15-year sentence after admitting to all charges he faced in the case.

Melvin Theuma was granted a presidential pardon for his role as a middleman in the murder, in return for turning over secret recordings shedding light on the journalist’s murder plot, the contents of which ultimately implicated business magnate Yorgen Fenech.

Fenech is facing charges which include complicity to murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion. He has been in custody since November 2019, yet a date for his trial has not been set.

Fenech has been requesting bail since his arraignment to no avail, as courts of law have been turning down his bail requests, citing a real fear that he could abscond or interfere with evidence.

The last bail request was turned down in August 2023, and in his application, Fenech argued that he could not understand why he has been held in preventive custody for almost four years and questioned what is stopping the authorities from granting him bail.

The Degiorgio brothers stood trial on 14 October 2022, where they both pleaded guilty on the first day of trial, and they were sentenced to 40 years in jail.

The brothers had failed to secure a new lawyer to defend them before their trial, after their original lawyer, William Cuschieri, informed Madam Justice Edwina Grima that he would no longer be acting for them in the murder case six weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin. During the trial they were represented by court appointed legal aid lawyers.

Two weeks later, the Degiorgio brothers demanded a retrial, arguing that their lawyers had not had enough time to prepare their defence. The two new lawyers submitted an appeal arguing that every lawyer the brothers had approached had felt there was “insufficient time to go through the colossal amount of evidence, most of them documents which had been filed by the prosecution.”

The report of the public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia was published on 29 July 2021. The inquiry found the State guilty of creating and sustaining a “culture of impunity” which ultimately led to the murder in 2017. 

The inquiry report made a number of recommendations which the government, upon publication of the report, committed to following.

The recommendations were spread across 18 pages out of the 438-page report, largely divided across two departments: amendments to the country’s legal framework in order to introduce new criminal offences, and ways and means to strengthen the country’s media sector.

As per the board’s recommendation, the government appointed a committee of experts in January 2022, which was made up of journalists, editors, academics, as well as a lawyer, to complete a review of a set of legislative packages drafted by government. It presented its report in July 2023.

Feedback from the committee had led to government launching three bills which it said were based on the Committee’s recommendations; however, journalists and editors said that they had not been given the opportunity to speak up about the sector before the bills were put forward.

Prime Minister Abela was met with calls for him to publish the report and open it up for public consultation, with the Institute of Maltese Journalists saying it was prepared to publish the entire report drawn up unless the PM did so.

Abela tabled the report in Parliament on 2 October and announced that the government will be issuing a White Paper with proposed media reform laws, including the inclusion of journalism in the constitution, creating a system of public funding for media houses, as well as a law protecting journalists from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

Last Thursday, NGOs Repubblika and Occupy Justice announced a set of 20 proposals which expect government to prioritise in the fight against corruption, for a “cleaner republic.”

The organisations said that the proposals were being presented to commemorate six years since Caruana Galizia’s murder, and to highlight that the context which enabled her killing remains unchanged today.

The proposals, many of which were recommendations from the public inquiry into the journalist’s murder, call for increased quality in the country’s prosecutor’s office, true protection for journalists and whistleblowers, as well as an anti-mafia law to fight against organised crime.