Updated 2.57pm

Activists incensed by a government decision to hoard up the Great Siege monument in Valletta marked seven different national monuments with tributes to Daphne Caruana Galizia overnight between Saturday and Sunday.

Photo: Il-Kenniesa/Facebook

Portraits of the murdered journalist, accompanied by posters with messages calling for her killers to be brought to justice, were put up overnight at national monuments in Valletta, Marsa, Msida, Floriana and Vittoriosa.

Aside from affixing posters to boards blocking off the Great Siege monument, activists also placed images of Ms Caruana Galizia at the Sette Giugno monument in St George’s square, the Malta memorial and Independence monument in Floriana, Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa, Workers’ Memorial in Msida and Republic Day Monument in Marsa.

The posters and portraits were quickly removed. By late on Sunday morning, all seven monuments had been cleared. All that remained by the Great Siege memorial monument were a couple of flower bouquets with quotes of Ms Caruana Galizia's attached. 

Activists slam government

In a Facebook post uploaded earlier in the day, activist group Il-Kenniesa said that they had set up overnight memorials to Ms Caruana Galizia on national monuments “honouring democratic principles and values that the government seems adamant to ignore or breach”.

Fellow activist group Occupy Justice also uploaded the same Facebook post, but a spokesperson for Il-Kenniesa subsequently clarified that its activists were solely responsible for the overnight action. 

In a separate statement, activists from Reżistenza Malta said they had put up banners in Sliema, Bidjnija and the Great Siege memorial in Valletta. The posters read "She investigated them... they killed her." 

The overnight action was coordinated after the government blocked off access to the Republic Street Great Siege memorial on Saturday afternoon, saying the monument – which had been turned into a makeshift memorial to Ms Caruana Galizia in the months following her murder – needed restoration.

Activists say they do not believe that explanation. In separate statements, Il-Kenniesa and fellow activist group Reżistenza both accused the government of “trying to erase” Ms Caruana Galizia’s memory.

Photo: Il-Kenniesa/Facebook

Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters