An international whistleblower expert described the verdict reached in the trial over the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia as a "failure of the system that was supposed to work," saying that "something went badly wrong."

Anna Myers is a legal expert in the field of public interest whistleblowing and anti-corruption prevention and is currently the Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network.

She was in Malta at the invitation of the NGO Repubblika as part of events commemorating the ninth anniversary of Caruana Galizia's assassination.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday about her area of expertise and the ramifications of the acquittal of Yorgen Fenech of charges of conspiracy and complicity of the journalist's murder, Myers said that she thinks that society, not just in Malta, is grappling with spaces for public participation being squeezed and being attacked.

"Journalists everywhere are being attacked on lots of different levels," she said, adding that the murders of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Jan Kuciak soon after in Slovakia had caused the journalist community to really rally.

Myers, who has years of experience working in the whistleblower sector, said that the murders of Caruana Galizia and Kuciak actually sent a shockwave through Europe which resulted in political will which led to the Whistleblower Directive.

This prompted the journalistic community, and people working for whistleblower protection, anti-corruption activists, and environmental activists to come together around these policies. 

"Something shifted in that world, where we had all been kind of working separately but we then started to share the space.  The problem is that this space that we are sharing is also under attack - but that does give us a sense of cohesion," she said.

Myers said that the conversation on whistleblowing has advanced: things are changing, but one never knows what has changed until it does change, she said. 

She cited Repubblika's new report on whistleblowing, which found that fragmentation is negatively affecting the effectiveness of whistleblower protection in Malta, saying that if she would have been in the position of wanting to blow the whistle, she wouldn't know where to start from.

However, she said that "no matter how hard it seems and how some people want to just forget the bad news, it cannot go away" and that "once things start to open up, there can be something that will flip that makes things be addressed in a different way."

 "It doesn't mean it's going to change tomorrow, but once those ideas get into people's heads and their perspective is different, I do think it can suddenly change," she added.

Asked about what message the trial's 'Not Guilty' verdict sent to journalists and whisteblowers, she said that the verdict was a "failure of the system that was supposed to work."

Myers said that the message that the verdict should send is to the legal community and the law enforcement community because it shows that "something went badly wrong", even on the basis that it took so long - but primarily because not everybody who was implicated in the inquiry is facing consequences.

"I think though, based on what was heard and what's out there, it's a pyrrhic victory for those who walked away because they did go through that process, and it's a stain that they won't be able to wash out.  They can try, they will try, no doubt, but I think that there's enough people who believe that someone close to those positions ordered this to happen and allowed it to happen, and that is unacceptable in a democratic country," she said.

When it comes to whistleblowers, she said that one needs the legal systems to work so that people do not have to put their lives at risk.  "You'd think money is all that matters, but information is the power that they fear," she said.

Asked how, in a society as small as Malta's where everyone seems to know everyone, whistleblowers can feel comfortable sharing information, Myers said that the answer is that things must be "strategic."

Myers added that the three questions she asks are what the problem is; who they want to tell; and what is stopping them - and then strategise around that. "They're not the only ones with information even in a small society," she said.

Journalists have a role in thinking about that, she said, saying that for instance they can get information received through a whistleblower through another way - such as a Freedom of Information request - and therefore break the link to the individual.

"People might guess and that might make life more stressful or not, but you have to understand that you must hold the line," she said.