Press freedom activists call for full justice after Maksar trial verdict
Reporters Without Borders also called for stronger measures to protect journalists
Updated 6.03pm
Press freedom activists are calling for the justice system to “swiftly proceed” in convicting the mastermind behind the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and to strengthen measures to protect journalists.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) statement was published on Friday, a day after a jury found Robert Agius, 41, and his associate Jamie Vella, 42, guilty of complicity in the car-bomb assassination of the journalist by supplying the military grade explosive that killed her in October 2017.
Vella was also convicted, along with Adrian Agius, 46, and George Degiorgio, 62, of involvement in the murder of Chircop who was gunned down as he entered a Birkirkara garage in October 2015.
The head of RSF European Union and Balkans Desk, Pavol Szalai, said the conviction of the bomb suppliers marks “undeniable progress in the quest for justice”.
“But their trial once again highlighted the Maltese state’s failure to dismantle- at every stage- the complex scheme devised to kill a journalist, and the difficulty of untangling it in a drawn-out judical process.”
Apart from the immediate need to proceed towards the conviction of the mastermind behind the murder, the group also push the government to implement the recommendations on journalist safety and press freedom, recommendations which came out of the public inquiry into the assassination of the journalist.
The public inquiry was published four years ago, yet a number of reccomendations relating to journalist safety and press freedom have yet to be implemented.
Three men, Vincent Muscat, Alfred Degiorgio and George Degiorgio, are already serving prison sentences after admitting their roles in planting and detonating the bomb.
'Vital step forward'
A group of five media freedom organisations said Friday that the guilty verdicts “mark another vital step forward in the fight for full justice”.
In a joint statement, the group called the verdict a “crucial development in the fight against impunity, which we hope will strengthen the case against the alleged mastermind of the assassination”.
The organisations paid tribute to the “dedication and professionalism” of Caruana Galizia’s legal team and stressed that while the verdict was a step forward, “full justice remains the only acceptable outcome”.
They emphasised that institutional reforms outlined by the public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination “have not been implemented and Maltese authorities are not demonstrating the political will required to address the culture of impunity and widespread institutional failures that allowed this killing to happen in the first place”.
The group said it would continue pushing for Maltese authorities to implement the recommendations of the inquiry “and take concrete steps to improve the wider environment for press freedom”.
The statement was signed by the International Press Institute (IPI), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT).