21
Oct
2025
Watch
Delayed justice and rule of law backsliding in Malta, eight years after Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, 35 years I have been a journalist, 35 years in this job. I ask a simple question: How far is Valletta from Rome and Rome from Athens? Eight years ago, Daphne was murdered. four years ago, in Athens, George Karaivaz; A few days ago, in Rome, there was an attempted homicide against investigative journalist Ranucci. How far away are our cities? The day before yesterday, journalist Nikos Aslanidis experienced an attempted kidnapping by the Turkish state, by an accession state. We here rightly honor her and award the Daphne Caruana Galizia Awards in her memory. In her memory or in memory of the inability of the political system to intervene? One of the initiators of this award, our former colleague, Stelios Kouloglou, a former MEP, now a journalist, is being persecuted in Greece. Justice in Daphne's case has not been granted. Her family is still fighting abusive lawsuits against Daphne, eight years after her death. Listen to the voice of journalists, to the voice of their unions, to the truth professionals who are being murdered as we speak in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Slovakia, in the Netherlands, in Malta. As we speak, journalists from Documento, tvxs, PressProject, Reporters United and the Journal of Editors are being persecuted by government or business interests. The left demanded: establishment of an institutional response structure to protect journalists and journalism with rapid response protocols and early warning and prevention mechanisms; constitutional reform to enshrine journalism as one of the pillars of democratic society, explicitly requiring states to guarantee and protect it; and to improve our SLAPPs directive and to incorporate it directly into the national laws of those Member States that do not understand.