Repubblika Accuses Culture Minister of 'Omertà' Over Daphne Caruana Galizia Remarks
Rule of law NGO Repubblika condemned Culture Minister Malcolm Paul Agius Galea for suggesting it is unclear whether Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed because of her journalism.
Repubblika: Minister's Daphne Comments Amount to 'Complicity With Organised Crime'
Rule of law NGO Repubblika has sharply condemned Culture Minister Malcolm Paul Agius Galea after he cast doubt on whether Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated as a direct result of her journalistic work. Lovin Malta reports that the minister made the comments outside Parliament earlier today.
"This is omertà," Repubblika said in a statement issued in response. "This is complicity with the culture that protects organised crime. This is turning a blind eye to the truth, literally before our eyes."
Agius Galea had been questioned by journalists over whether reporters in Malta were less safe following the acquittal of Yorgen Fenech. The minister said he did not believe they were. When a journalist stated that Caruana Galizia had been killed because of her work, the minister replied: "But that's what you're saying."
He drew a comparison to a hypothetical murder of a doctor, arguing that such a case would not automatically establish the profession as the motive. "Likewise, I don't know exactly what happened and what didn't happen," Agius Galea said, adding that "caution" was needed while proceedings related to the case remained ongoing.
Repubblika rejected that framing, pointing directly to the conclusions of the independent public inquiry into the 2017 assassination. "The independent Public Inquiry established that all the evidence pointed to Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination being a direct consequence of her investigative work into corruption, abuse of power, and the links between politics and business," the NGO said. "A government minister cannot pretend these facts do not exist."
The organisation described the minister's remarks as an "outrage to democracy" and called on the government to retract them without delay. It also demanded that the government formally reaffirm what it says the Maltese State has already acknowledged: that Caruana Galizia was a journalist killed because of her work.
Repubblika further argued that Malta cannot begin to address its institutional problems if the ministers charged with tackling them deny those problems exist.
The row erupted on the same day Parliament was urgently reconvened to debate the implications of Fenech's acquittal and its wider consequences for the rule of law in Malta.
Source: Lovin Malta