When those threatening press freedom kill a journalist, they will find dozens more who will continue their work, one of this year’s winners of the European Parliament's Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism has warned.

Carol Valade, who shared the prize with Clément Di Roma, told Times of Malta on Wednesday that the award came with great responsibility.

In a documentary published by ARTE/Le Monde, Valade and Di Roma recount how mercenaries of the Wagner Group, a secretive Kremlin army, are at the heart of central African power. According to their investigation, the country has become a testing ground for aggressive pro-Russian propaganda.

Taking advantage of France's loss of influence in its former colony, mercenaries protect the country's impoverished regime in exchange for mineral resources and a propaganda campaign.

In 2018, three Russian journalists investigating this army in the Central African Republic were reportedly killed. Asked why he chased the story despite the risks involved, Valade said he was aware of what the profession entailed when he took up the profession years ago.

“When we were shooting the documentary, we felt it was the right place to be and the right thing to do,” he added.

The prize he was awarded on Wednesday, he added, reminded him of those who, like Caruana Galizia, had lost their life while carrying out their work.

The prize, he said, also sent a message to those who threatened press freedom: “when you kill a journalist, you will always have dozens and dozens more who will stand up and continue the work”.

Launched in 2021, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize rewards “an outstanding journalist who promotes or defends the core principles and values of the EU such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and human rights”.

The annual ceremony takes place around October 16 to coincide with the anniversary of the assassination of Caruana Galizia.

The winner was announced in the Daphne Caruana Galizia press room in Strasbourg. 

‘Murders will continue unless those in government are held to account’

Ahead of the award ceremony, Caruana Galizia’s son Matthew addressed a media freedom seminar also organised by the European Parliament.

He warned that for as long as there were EU member states that were incapable of holding people at the highest levels of government to account journalists would continue being murdered.

“The kind of protections that are being introduced or proposed are extremely important – but we have to attack the root cause of journalists’ murders. Each journalist’s murder in the EU for the past few years is directly linked to corruption or organised crime,” he said.

Earlier, Caruana Galiza said that although his mother’s murder had been partly enabled through propaganda that made people dislike her, the journalist’s assassination was intrinsically linked to corruption.

“In my mother’s case she was investigating high level corruption and organised crime, and it is her investigation into corruption within the energy sector in Malta that directly led to her assassination.”

He said that measures pushed by European institutions such as the anti-SLAPP directive and the media freedom act needed to be combined with initiatives that attacked cross-border corruption.

‘Russia-level impunity Malta’

In his address, Caruana Galizia drew parallels between the conviction of hitmen in the murder of his mother, to that of Russia’s Anna Politkovskaya.

The Russian journalist who reported on political events in Russia, particularly the second Chechen war, was assassinated in 2006.

Caruana Galizia said the Degiorgio brothers' trial that lasted just one day last Friday was a relief for his family – however, it was “the bare minimum”.

“Even in the case of Anna Politkovskaya, Putin had allowed the hitmen to be convicted… Even in such extreme cases when you have complete non-democracies, hitmen involved in the murder of journalists are convicted.

“What Malta has achieved is really the bare minimum. We have not come to the trial of those involved at a higher level yet, they are still in custody or awaiting trial.”

Fielding questions from those present for the seminar, Caruana Galizia expressed hope that every single person involved in the assassination of his mother would be convicted.

“It’s really important for that to happen – if it doesn’t, Malta will remain at the Russia-level kind of impunity.”

The seminar was also addressed by European Parliament president Roberta Metsola.

"It is important to continue reminding people why people all over the world fight for freedom of speech, and why people have died for freedom of speech," she said.

"That is why today we honour Daphne Caruana Galizia's memory and legacy by awarding a prize that bears her name, by distinguishing outstanding journalistic work guided by the very same values she always stood for and fought for."

'The Daphne Law'

Metsola insisted that without freedom of the media there could be no real freedom.

For years, she said, the European Parliament has held the protection of media freedom at the top of its agenda, calling for rules to protect journalists from being silenced.

At the time of her assassination, Caruana Galizia had her bank accounts frozen and over 40 SLAPPs or suits filed against her, she added.

"We are seeing similar cases of varying degrees of tactics used against journalists across our union. This simply cannot be allowed in a democracy.

"The new media freedom act will allow journalists to do their work without having to fear financial or emotional ruin, or, even worse, for their lives.

"This act - the Daphne Law, as we like to call it - has also understood that the new digital environment has exacerbated the problem of the spread of disinformation," she said.

To counter this, Metsola added, the bloc needed a common strategy to face foreign interference and disinformation campaigns while also giving more support to independent media fact-checkers and researchers. 

"Let me say this in the clearest possible manner: this House stands tall and steadfast together in defence of the media and press freedom... this is a fight that we can, and will win."

At the award ceremony, Metsola noted that protecting journalists and protecting the truth meant protecting "our way of life".

In these dangerous and uncertain times, supporting free media meant supporting democracy itself, she added.