Updated
Comments by a government in-house lawyer partially blaming Daphne Caruana Galizia’s son for her assassination are “incongruous, out of line and condemnable”, according to a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister.
The government was referred to comments made by Anthony DeGiovanni, who claimed on Andrew Azzopardi’s103FM radio show that Caruana Galizia's son Matthew had contributed to his mother's death.
DeGiovanni said the son made a "big mistake which contributed to his mother’s death… he left the car parked outside didn’t he?”
Asked for a reaction, the spokesman said “these comments definitely do not represent government's or the Labour Party's position on this matter”.
The spokesman added that “statements such as this need to stop immediately, more so when government is intent on working along the lines of the public inquiry, which emphasised the need for reconciliation. The Prime Minister is determined to keep working towards this aim”.
The government also said that DeGiovanni’s contract is no longer in effect. It is not clear, however, when his contract was terminated.
Earlier, Daphne Caruana Galizia's sister Corinne Vella had said that the government has continued to provide a platform for malicious propaganda in spite of the State being found responsible for Daphne's murder.
Vella said a public inquiry led by three judges found that the Maltese state should shoulder responsibility for Daphne’s assassination, seven men have admitted to or are being charged in relation to the crime, and yet, malicious propaganda is still being given a platform and amplified at the expense of the murder victim’s family.
DeGiovanni, a former mayor of Fgura and former Education Ministry consultant, had been in the news in 2020 when he used a government computer to change the Wikipedia profile of Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt.
Vella told Times of Malta: "Propoganda is still being given a platform and amplified at the expense of the murder victim's family."
She added that this latest incident had been triggered by the case of MP Rosianne Cutajar, who took a cash gift from a man now accused of commissioning Daphne's murder.
"Cutajar was found to have breached the code of ethics by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life but the Speaker failed in his democratic obligation to issue the reprimand he had voted for."
Neither the Speaker, nor Cutajar had resigned, she said.
In a recent podcast, Matthew Caruana Galizia said people tried to find blame for what happened to his mother as a result of the guilt they feel.
“I believe people feel guilty for what happened and they try to shift the blame on someone else to feel better, even if that means blaming a journalist’s murder on a dog that did not bark,” he said.
DeGiovanni's comments were also condemned by Robert Aquilina, the president of civil society group Repubblika.
He said when contacted that DeGiovanni's claims were "the result of the rotten fruit the Labour government sowed in the past few years".
The lawyer, Aquilina said, should be removed from the government's books.
Aquilina said the case was similar to what had happened with ONE TV’s Karl Stagno Navarra. "Our Prime Minister Robert Abela simply disagrees with him, but that is not enough."
Stagno Navarra had singled out Lovin Malta journalist Tim Diacono, who was reporting on a protest being held by Repubblika, to claim that Repubblika, the Nationalist Party, the Church and the media were all working to bring down the Labour government.
The prime minister had later condemned Stagno Navarra for his "unacceptable" comments. Stagno Navarra then apologised to Diacono.
"He (the prime minister) is responsible for his employees. It is not enough to disagree with their actions, they must be stopped," Aquilina insisted.
Following DeGiovanni’s comment, Flutura Kusari, legal advisor of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, called on Abela to ask his supporters to stop intimidating Daphne’s family.
“A good way to show support for the family would be to visit the site where Malta’s best investigative journalist was assassinated," she said in a tweet.
Civil society activists will meet outside Parliament on Monday to call for their resignation.