Britain’s opposition Labour Party deputy leader, Tom Watson. Photo: Reuters

UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson is being urged by the deputy Labour leader to call on the Maltese authorities and ensure that the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is properly investigated.

In a letter signed on Tuesday, Tom Watson told Mr Johnson of his “deep concern” about the Maltese journalist’s death.

“I want to ask you to make urgent representations to your Maltese counterparts to urge them to ensure Ms Caruana Galizia’s death is properly investigated, and that the investigation is carried out and overseen by officials who have not been subject to her journalistic investigations or raised concerns about her work,” the MP told Mr Johnson, who has also featured in Ms Caruana Galizia’s writings.

Mr Watson noted that attacks on journalists anywhere in the world have a chilling effect on free speech and democracy.

Investigations like the work Ms Caruana Galizia did on the Panama Papers case help to uncover information which powerful people would prefer to keep hidden, the MP wrote.

This is “why it is so important that as democratic politicians we defend them and stand up for the journalists who carry them out,” he added.

In his correspondence, Mr Watson pointed out that this was a matter of public interest and he would release the letter to the media.

The death of Ms Caruana Galizia has sent ripples through the journalistic community in the rest of the world, with The Guardian’s editorial saying that her assassination “speaks volumes about the threat to freedom of speech in that country and the atmosphere of impunity and violence that has taken hold in the Mediterranean archipelago”.

Her death must be properly investigated, the editorial continues, adding that “local police already appear to be unsympathetic”.

The editorial adds that the EU must take action when one of its own backslides on democratic commitments and when a life is lost in the pursuit of truth.

For The New York Times, the most fitting tribute to her work would be for leaders who purport to be democratic to denounce the demonisation of journalists and to let reporters perform their essential democratic role without fear or harassment.

Headlined ‘With a Journalist’s Murder in Malta, a Global Threat Grows’, the editorial notes that democracy in Malta was compromised before the murder of Ms Caruana Galizia, “who had ceaselessly reported massive government corruption”.