A picture of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and a candle were removed from in front of the boarded-up Great Siege Monument late on Sunday by two men believed to be government workers.

They drove up to the monument in Republic Street in a car of the Ministry of Justice, picked up the items and drove off.

Times of Malta reporter Claire Caruana said the men photographed her as she took the video.

The memorial has been cleared some 20 times in the past 11 months and activists, who have always reinstated it, have called on the court to order the government to desist. 

Matthew Caruana Galizia, the journalist's son, in a tweet following the latest incident, wrote that if the Malta government could not even allow a photo of his mother with a small candle in front of it to be shown in public, "how do you think they behaved towards her in life and what was their role in her assassination?"

He reiterated calls for a public inquiry.