Civil society activists on Thursday called on Prime Minister Robert Abela to issue a public apology to the Daphne Caruana Galizia family within 30 days.
A representative of the civil society organisation Occupy Justice, Clemence Dujardin, made the call during a Vigil for Truth and Justice in Valletta, held every month since the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017.
The vigil was held in front of the makeshift memorial for Caruana Galizia at the foot of the Great Siege Monument, hours after Dr Abela announced that he had issued instructions for government workers not to clear the memorial after the vigil - as they have been doing for months.
At the start of the vigil, activist Manuel Delia said Dr Abela should not be thanked for his decision, because the makeshift memorial and the laying of flowers and candles were an exercise in the fundamental right of freedom of expression and of protest enjoyed by all. "The right to protest is not a gift or prerogative in the hands of the prime minister, it is a fundamental human right," he said.
Indeed, if Dr Abela was sincere, he should now drop the legal defence in the case instituted against the government over its breach of this right as the memorial was repeatedly cleared. Furthermore, the minister who had taken the decision to have the memorial cleared (former Justice Minister Owen Bonnici) should be held politically accountable.
"Every time we laid flowers and candles we were not protesting for the right to protest but we were protesting for truth and justice. When he finally get truth and justice we will not say thank you either. Rather, on that day the state will have to recognise that it allowed, at the very least, a journalist to be killed because of her work," Mr Delia said.
In her speech later, Ms Dujardin also called on the new prime minister to sack Attorney General Peter Grech and Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar within 30 days.
In a list of demands interrupted by applause, she also called on Dr Abela to publish the job contract and description for former government envoy Neville Gafa.
She urged the prime minister to bring about the shutdown of hate groups online and to ensure there was fair and factual reporting, especially on the state media.
She called on Dr Abela to apologise for the way the government had treated civil society when it sought justice and truth.
‘We demand an apology for the treatment we have faced. We deserve better, we demand better,’ she said.
Other speakers were Jeremy Gingell and Marion Pace Asciak.