Former Speaker Myriam Spiteri Debono paid tribute to murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in a speech given during Victory Day celebrations, calling on the nation to “redeem ourselves anew” and commit to necessary reform in the wake of the assassination.

Spiteri Debono served as Malta’s first female Speaker of the House during Alfred Sant's Labour government in 1996. 

She gave her speech during a wreath-laying ceremony on Monday at the Great Siege Memorial in Valletta, a site that has since served as an unofficial memorial to Caruana Galizia.

At the site, activists and Caruana Galizia admirers regularly leave candles and flowers, as well as portraits of the slain journalist, and call for justice. The memorial lies directly opposite the law courts. 

“Raymond Caruana and Karin Grech were the victims of the prevailing situations in the times when their blood was spilled and their lives cut short. The killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia was different – it was a brutal and ghoulish murder. Investigations have so far shown that she was the intended victim of the killing. They killed her to shut her up,” Spiteri Debono said.

“This was an execution, intimately connected with the investigations she conducted in the exercise of her profession as a journalist. It would help everyone to strengthen the respect and the appreciation we should have for all those who work in investigative journalism and who spread the news. Let us remember that journalism is the fourth pillar of democracy.”

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The speech was not disseminated through the Department of Information or the Committee for National Feasts. 

Snippets of the commemorative programme, handed out at the ceremony and containing a copy of Spiteri Debono’s speech, were obtained by Times of Malta. 

Independent electoral candidate Arnold Cassola alleged that it was "the first time in a century" that speeches were not published and asked whether it was because Spiteri Debono had chosen to speak about Caruana Galizia's assassination. 

'Red warning light'

In her speech, Spiteri Debono said that the assassination had been a “red warning light” that shook up society and inflicted deep pain in those who knew and loved her .

“We must redeem ourselves anew. We need to come together, as we have in the past, to make necessary changes, some of which we've already started to make,” she said. 

“But to do this, we cannot get caught up in gossip and name-calling, in petty quips to score political points and pyrrhic victories without substance on a partisan level, which often only serve to sow division among people.”

“There is no one great victory. There are many small victories that come together to make a great victory. The fight for, above all, fair and just leadership is a continuous battle we are challenged with day after day. Our vigilance must be constant and we can never falter. To achieve this we must stand united.” 

“We have the backbone necessary to fix what has been found to be broken and from time to time continue identifying what needs to change and evolve.

“With gratitude and honour to all those in our distant past who showed us the right path, particularly where good governance is concerned, let us together build the country that we deserve, so that future generations can find the strong foundations they need to keep moving forward,” Spiteri Debono appealed.