Impunity stalls press freedom progress

Nearly nine years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta still faces a fundamental question: Has the country truly addressed the conditions that made her murder possible?

As I said during a recent plenary debate in the European Parliament, it is incorrect to say that there were no changes. The low-level criminals who committed the assassination were jailed. The way the judiciary is appointed has improved on paper even though our justice system continues to be undermined in practice. And European laws protecting journalists that are applicable to Malta too have been enacted.

Yet, the central issue identified by the public inquiry into Daphne’s assassination remains unresolved: this is the culture of impunity that allowed corruption to flourish unchecked. That culture cannot be dismantled through partial reforms.

Justice for Daphne does not end with convictions for those who planted the bomb. As I have been repeatedly insisting, justice for Daphne means justice for the criminality that she was killed to stop her from exposing. Nearly a decade later, convictions linked to that corruption remain largely absent.

The alleged mastermind behind the assassination has yet to be brought to justice. Key recommendations made by the public inquiry – repeatedly highlighted by the European Parliament – remain unimplemented. And the structural reforms needed to prevent future abuses of power are still incomplete. This is not only a failure of memory. It is a failure of responsibility.

Malta’s credibility as a European democracy depends not on statements of commitment but on whether institutions act decisively when wrongdoing is exposed. The protection of journalists is inseparable from the fight against corruption. When corruption goes unpunished, investigative journalism becomes dangerous by definition. This is why recent European legislation is so important.

The Anti-SLAPP Directive, known as Daphne’s Law, which I pushed for through the EPP Group, strengthens protection for journalists facing abusive lawsuits intended to silence scrutiny. The European Media Freedom Act reinforces editorial independence and transparency across member states. And the newly adopted EU Anti-Corruption Directive introduces binding standards on combating corruption.

A country that protects journalists protects its democracy- David Casa

For the first time, we have given the European Commission an objective toolkit to assess how member states fight corruption. This is not a symbolic change. It creates enforceable expectations. Importantly, the directive also addresses reforms that Malta’s own public inquiry already identified but which remained unanswered for years.

The public inquiry following the assassination called on the government to introduce laws against the abuse of power. Like many other elements in that inquiry, the call fell on deaf ears. But, now, because of this directive, the government must act. European law is now closing gaps that national authorities left open. This should not be necessary.

Malta should be leading reforms that protect journalists and strengthen accountability, not responding to them only after sustained pressure from European institutions and civil society. Only recently, a coalition of international press freedom and journalist organisations called on the Maltese authorities to prioritise the long-overdue media reforms.

The lesson of Daphne’s assassination was never only about one crime. It was about the consequences of allowing corruption to operate without consequence. Until that lesson is fully applied, the government will continue failing the Maltese people because it is only through investigative journalism that we are not kept in the dark.

Much more needs to be done for the culture of impunity in Malta to be eradicated. A country that protects journalists protects its democracy. A country that delays accountability weakens both.

We still have the opportunity to deliver. But the road ahead remains long and arduous.

D

David Casa, a Nationalist MEP, is head of Malta’s EPP delegation in the European Parliament.