The government has for five years now been reluctant - and almost intrinsically against - implementing the recommendations that emerged from the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia's death.
The public inquiry, lest we forget, had found that the State was responsible for creating and perpetuating a culture of impunity that ultimately made the assassination of Caruana Galizia possible.
It had also issued a set of recommended reforms to the country's constitution and laws in varying sectors in order to strengthen the rule of law, reduce the culture of impunity, and also protect journalists in such a manner that it ensures that something like this murder never happens again.
Yet the vast majority of these recommended reforms remain untouched.
A jury acquitted Yorgen Fenech of charges of complicity and conspiracy in the murder of Caruana Galizia last week - and that has now thrown immense scrutiny on the government, particularly over its evident reticence in implementing these reforms.
It is good to remember what the recommendations that the public inquiry had made were.
The inquiry had recommended specific legal amendments that would have consolidated existing laws and also introduced new crimes into Malta's Criminal Code.
The first was to introduce Unexplained Wealth Orders which can be used to fight financial crime and corruption, while the inquiry also recommended criminalising hindrance of public officials to authorities in investigations, criminalising mafia-style association, criminalising abuse of office, and introducing the crime of obstruction of justice and attempted perversion of justice.
On a constitutional level, the inquiry had then recommended the recognition of freedom of the press as one of the pillars of a democratic society, to set up a fully autonomous, impartial, and independent Office of the Ombudsman or a Commissioner for Journalistic Ethics, and to revise the terms of the Broadcasting Authority which the inquiry said has failed in its duty of impartiality.
The inquiry had also called for revisions to the Freedom of Information Act, fair and equal distribution of public funds spent on advertising, and the elimination of the possibility of SLAPP libel suits against journalists - a measure which has been implemented but which requires much improvement.
Many of these measures had featured in a so-called 'mega bill' tabled by the Nationalist Party in early 2022, just over six months after the recommendations were issued. Government MPs struck the Bill down by voting against it in Parliament, with Prime Minister Robert Abela saying that the Bill was unprecedented in the fact that it included 11 distinct laws piled into one vote.
At the time, he said that other bills were being drafted in terms of the recommendations of the Caruana Galizia inquiry. Perhaps they are still being drafted now, four and a half years later.
One must ask the question: why has the government at the very least dragged its feet, and at the most outright refused, to implement the recommendations outlined in the public inquiry?
The Nationalist Party has said that it will table the recommendations for implementation in Parliament. It remains to be seen whether the government will strike them down once again.
The jury verdict does not change the notion that the government had not done enough, as of now, to strengthen Malta's laws against criminality.
A lot of work is needed, and the Caruana Galizia inquiry provided a strong blueprint. Why the government has not, half a decade later, acted upon most of it is anyone's guess.