From time to time, I follow from afar what is happening in Malta and, in particular, the way the country is dealing with the problems of corruption which, most unfortunately, seems to be still very much part of the system.

I read about the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In all the reactions I have seen to this horrible event, I see that one is talking a lot about freedom of the press and of opinion. I am afraid that, in my opinion, this is only a very superficial reading of the event.

Indeed, I would think that Caruana Galizia was not assassinated because of her opinions but, rather, because she was unearthing disturbing and compromising facts for a number of people in Malta.

This has nothing to do with the freedom of the press and of opinion but rather with the very functioning of the State, which is an even more important and fundamental question.

I respectfully suggest that, in further analysis of the event, readers would think more fundamentally about the questions raised by the underlying corruption affecting the proper functioning of the State in all of its numerous and diverse functions, including the essential role of an independent and competent system of justice, and not only of freedom of the press.

Freedom of the press is certainly important but, in the end, only a derivative and a mirror of the functioning of the State.