CPJ joins call to end impunity in killing of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

Gulnoza Said
People lay flowers and candles at a memorial during a vigil and protest on the first anniversary of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia outside the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, on October 16, 2018. On the second anniversary of her murder, CPJ joined a call to end impunity in her case. (Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi)

People lay flowers and candles at a memorial during a vigil and protest on the first anniversary of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia outside the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, on October 16, 2018. On the second anniversary of her murder, CPJ joined a call to end impunity in her case. (Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi)

Two years after the assassination of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and one year after CPJ joined five other organizations in an international press freedom mission to Malta, CPJ and nine other groups once again demanded an end to impunity for the heinous attack and renewed calls to ensure the independence of a public inquiry into the killing.

Caruana Galizia was killed when the car she was driving exploded in Malta on October 16, 2017. Three men are currently in detention in relation to the killing, according to CPJ research; however the perpetrators, including the masterminds, have yet to be brought to justice and no trial dates have been announced.

CPJ welcomed the Maltese government’s announcement on September 20 about the establishment of a public inquiry and has called on the government to ensure that the inquiry is fully independent and impartial. CPJ shared the concerns of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) with regard to both the terms of reference and the composition of the Board of Inquiry.

Today, CPJ and other organizations urged the Maltese government to move forward without further delay in establishing a truly independent and impartial public inquiry in line with PACE’s requirements.

To commemorate the second anniversary of the journalist’s killing, CPJ and partner organizations are holding vigils in several cities, including London and Brussels today.

The full text of the statement is here.

Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, is a journalist and press freedom advocate with over 20 years of experience in New York, Prague, Bratislava, and Tashkent. At CPJ, she has conducted several missions to countries in Europe and Central Asia, and advocated for greater press freedom and the release of jailed journalists at forums including the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the OSCE. Before joining CPJ in 2016, she was a journalist and covered issues including elections, politics, media, religion, and human rights with a focus on Central Asia, Russia, and Turkey. She also worked in communications for the United Nations Secretariat and the UNDP. Her op-eds, reports, and comments have appeared in CNN, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, PBS, NBC, Voice of America, RFE/RL, Fergana, Eurasianet, and other outlets, and she authored the Uzbekistan chapter in a book on the study of social entrepreneurship. Follow her on LinkedIn.

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