Several embassies on Friday spoke out against the clearing of mementoes and flowers from the memorial dedicated to Daphne Caruana Galizia in Valletta, hours after a vigil commemorated her assassination eight years ago.
The comments came as OPM official Nevile Gafa was filmed clearing the monument early this morning.
"How do you measure impact? Is it when your work continues to upset those who do not care for truth and courage? Flowers are disposable but legacies are not," the Irish embassy wrote on its Facebook page.
"Ireland's permanent memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia and others like her is in Dublin's Iveagh Gardens. Her admirers or detractors may visit anytime thanks to regular flights with Aer Lingus or RyanAir. We take media freedom, safety of journalists, and the rule of law seriously as pillars of democracy. Petty vandalism will always remain just that," it wrote on social media.
It was referring to a post by Occupy Justice on Facebook, which said that at around 2am last night a man threw the "British High Commission wreath (which had been placed at the memorial) and dumped it in a bin. It was back on the protest memorial immediately." The civil society group also said that at 2.45am, two men "cleared our protest and threw the tributes in bins. The protest material was replaced immediately."
This clearing up happened hours after a vigil was held on Thursday, marking eight years since the investigative journalist was brutally assassinated by a car bomb in Bidnija. Caruana Galizia was driving down the road from her home when her car exploded, killing her instantly. Her murder sparked local outrage and sent shockwaves well beyond Malta's shores.
Neville Gafa, employed at the Office of the Prime Minister as a customer care coordinator, posted a separate video today saying that the memorial had been removed. Occupy Justice activists responded that the video had not been filmed today. Gafa also posted on social media that he used to and does clean the monument, claiming that the heritage law is being breached.
Back in 2020, a court judgement found that the government had breached an activist's right to freedom of expression by ordering the clearance of the memorial.
The monument, which was set up soon after that fateful 16 October 2017 assassination, was regularly cleared of Daphne mementoes by the Labour government when Joseph Muscat was Prime Minister and Owen Bonnici minister responsible for culture. When Robert Abela replaced Muscat, he had ordered that the memorial is not cleared.
The German embassy also posted on social media: "Just like you can kill the journalist, but not the story, you can kill our flowers, but not our support for keeping Daphne's memory alive."
The Embassy of the Netherlands in Malta said: "We are appalled to see this news. Vandals can destroy our flowers, but they cannot destroy our support for keeping Daphne's memory alive. When you kill a journalist, you do not kill their stories!"