Malta will never achieve closure and reconciliation on the Daphne Caruana Galizia “wound” unless all sides – including her family and the Labour Party – apologise, Jason Micallef said.

Speaking during a Times Talk debate with lawyer Jason Azzopardi, the long-time Labour stalwart, who is now the party’s special delegate for the implementation of the electoral manifesto, said he has previously called for this apology but “it went unnoticed”.

“If we want reconciliation on the horrible murder of Daphne, we have to say sorry to everyone for everything,” he said, conceding that the Labour Party should also apologise.

“Everyone must shoulder their part but her family must start as well. We must say ‘sorry’ together and we must agree on how to get there. But we can’t ignore the fact that she was also the author of the worst personal attacks.”

Caruana Galizia, an outspoken journalist and author of the Running Commentary blog, was murdered in 2017 in a car bomb outside her Bidnija home. Three men have admitted planting the bomb while court proceedings are continuing against the alleged bomb makers and mastermind of the attack.

Azzopardi, while acknowledging the need for closure, emphasised that the most crucial step towards that comes when justice is done for Caruana Galizia and her family and that the legal proceedings surrounding her murder must conclude before true healing can begin.

Heated Times Talk debate

The two outspoken men went head-to-head in an 80-minute episode of Times of Malta’s Times Talk podcast, released on Thursday.

The discussion ranged from Azzopardi’s social media claims, libel cases and requests for magisterial inquiries into powerful people, to Joseph Muscat and the Vitals inquiry and court case, personal attacks on politicians and national reconciliation.

But the heated debate also exposed deep divisions and lingering wounds, with Micallef saying personal attacks and historical grievances continue to impede efforts at reconciliation.

Personal attacks

One key point of contention revolved around Caruana Galizia’s own writings. Micallef argued that while her murder was tragic and horrific, Caruana Galizia had herself engaged in vicious personal attacks, targeting individuals’ appearances, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and even health issues.

“Daphne Caruana Galizia used to attack our families in the meanest ways – for being fat, ugly, cohabiting and over people’s sexual orientation or religious beliefs,” he said.

He acknowledged her murder was horrific and could never be justified but insisted people should not forget that she was also “a gossip monger who made fun of [Labour] families”.

“She celebrated Mintoff’s death and that remains a wound”, he said.

Azzopardi said he did not approve of or agree with everything she wrote but people also needed to remember that she did stellar and crucial journalistic work and has been continuously proven right since then.

He also recalled that many Labour supporters had shamelessly celebrated her death and accused the PL of fascist-like tactics.  

Caruana Galizia wrote extensively on corruption in Maltese politics and was the first to report how former government officials Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri secretly set up companies in Panama while in office.

An inquiry into her murder found the state should shoulder responsibility for her assassination and that a culture of impunity was created from the highest echelons of power within Castille.

On Karl Stagno Navarra

Micallef said he never resorted to personal attacks himself but Azzopardi questioned the sincerity of those in the Labour Party who claim to avoid such tactics, saying Labour pundit and then-ONE TV host Karl Stagno Navarra broadcast an entire, 50-minute show on Azzopardi and his partner’s personal lives in 2021.

“It was harassment on a private citizen and these things should be condemned. The same people who say they don’t attack others personally and are not mean did just that on the PL TV station with Robert Abela’s blessing,” Azzopardi said.

Micallef defended Stagno Navarra’s recent intense criticism of Azzopardi, including when he approached him outside his car in Sliema two weeks ago.

Azzopardi saw it as an unacceptable intrusion but Micallef disagreed.

“I’ve known Karl Stagno Navarra for years as a very capable journalist and I remember he would do the same to me and then-PL leader Alfred Sant when he used to work as a journalist for PN,” Micallef said.

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