[attach id=508284 size="medium"]News editor and press award double winner Caroline Muscat. [/attach]

Five Times of Malta journalists took home prizes at the Malta Journalism Awards this evening. 

Caroline Muscat won in both the print journalism and environmental journalism categories. Ms Muscat was the journalist who revealed how businessman Mark Gaffarena made a mint on a Valletta property by buying it mere weeks before the government expropriated it. 

Receiving the awards, she reminded the audience that journalists "had a democratic duty to free speech," noting that independent journalism was going through a tough time at the moment.

"The law should not be used to muzzle freedom of expression," Ms Muscat said.  

Kevin Azzopardi won the sports journalism (print) prize. Mr Azzopardi wrote a series of articles about match-fixing in local football, as well as a set of articles about footballers of Maltese descent obtaining Maltese passports.

Paul Zammit Cutajar took home the award for best sports photography. 

Kristina Chetcuti's Sunday column won her the award for best opinion articles, and Lino Bugeja took home the prize for best cultural journalism. 

The Malta Journalism Awards are held every year and awarded by the Institute of Maltese Journalists. 

IGM chariman Karl Wright urged the government to follow through on its promises to make criminal libel a thing of the past. "I'm sorry to say that what seemed to be a priority seems to have been relegated to the second or third division," he said. 

He urged Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, who was among the audience members, to raise the issue at Cabinet level.