One feels deeply for the family and friends of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a very courageous lady. How sad that the islands of the Knights of St John should have become a locus of such corruption and criminality that a journalist has to make a career of exposing it.

Caruana Galizia deserves posthumous honours. Nobody should underestimate the stress of living with the dangers of her calling.

Here in the UK we are no strangers to corruption. Scotland Yard itself had to root it out in the 1980s. The West Midlands serious crime squad, guilty of a litany of miscarriages of justice, was disbanded. Other senior police officers are suspended and under investigation.

The allowances and expenses paid to our politicians have caused embarrassment, leading to resignations. Remember the floating duck house on expenses?

The BBC has paid inflated salaries and severance payments beyond contractual requirements.

In Scotland, the latest news is of bumper payments to senior local council staff on six figure salaries for organising elections.

Whether or not you call greedy payment shenanigans corruption is a matter of semantics. What is certain is that they are rife and make the man in the street poorer. Without investigative journalism they would not come to light.

All credit to Caruana Galizia for her crusade against corruption and crime in Malta. She set a shining example of courage and tenacity for journalists everywhere, like the Knights, risking her life, putting her calling first.