Five years after the public inquiry into Daphne's assassination, Malta has yet to deliver the reforms journalists need

The trial of Yorgen Fenech for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination is showing in real time how corrupt influence enabled her murder. Yet today, exactly five years after the public inquiry exposed the fact and concluded that the Maltese State had failed to protect Daphne, most of its recommendations remain unimplemented. This leaves journalists exposed to the same systemic risks that made Daphne’s assassination possible.

The 2021 public inquiry report concluded that the Maltese State must shoulder responsibility for Daphne’s assassination because:

• it failed to protect Daphne when there was a real and immediate risk to her life;
• it actively increased the dangers which Daphne faced by isolating, dehumanising, financially crippling, and discrediting her, despite her investigations into government corruption being supported by evidence, as confirmed by the public inquiry;
• high-level corruption created a powerful network of interests within government and business that shared a common interest: to “neutralise” Daphne’s reporting and to protect those responsible for her murder;
• the Office of the Prime Minister led an “orchestrated plan” to undermine the political impact of Daphne’s reporting - this was a groundbreaking confirmation of the crucial role political propaganda played in her death;
• the Office of the Prime Minister fostered a culture of impunity that “spread like an octopus” throughout the entire State and its regulatory bodies, enabling those exposed by Daphne’s reporting to retaliate without consequence;
• senior Government officials sought to mislead Police investigators and journalists in the aftermath of Daphne’s assassination, in an effort to help the culprits escape justice and media pressure.

The ongoing trial is a stark reminder that accountability requires more than convictions for murder. Only by fully implementing the public inquiry’s recommendations can Malta address the systemic failures that enabled Daphne’s assassination, address organised crime, restore confidence in the rule of law, and ensure that no journalist is ever murdered again.

Our briefing note summarises the recommendations of the report of the public inquiry, the current status of their implementation, and our position on each recommendation.