Journalist/blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was laid to rest yesterday, more than a fortnight after she was killed in a car bomb.
She was murdered because of what she wrote or, perhaps, what she was about to write. What the killers’ real motive was may never be known but they wanted to stop her, at any cost, and they did because Ms Caruana Galizia can no longer communicate with her sources, conduct her investigations and write her blogs.
Still, her pen was not silenced. The messenger was shot – bombed, in this case – but the message lives on. Indeed, the revelations she made along the years have all come to the fore again. All names and situations she mentioned are, hopefully, being carefully studied by the investigators. Their aim, of course, is to find the perpetrators and those who commissioned the assassination. If this were truly a democratic country where the rule of law prevails both in spirit and on paper, the ‘bad apples’ would be made to pay for the abuse Ms Caruana Galizia exposed.
Throughout her professional life, she challenged the powers-that-be to constantly bear in mind they are there to serve not to get rich quick. To ensure governance is not substituted by cronyism. To see to it that the corrupt, the sleazy, the crooks are prosecuted, not rewarded.
Ms Caruana Galizia also challenged society to ensure that Malta truly belongs to all. To stand up and be counted. The challenge is still there. Only it is now bigger and more urgent.
In its role as watchdog of society, the media has a huge responsibility. Suddenly, journalism in this country has become more relevant than ever before. Even because the Nationalist Party, in utter disarray, cannot put up the sort of Opposition a healthy democracy requires.
The powerful bomb that killed Ms Caruana Galizia may have also been meant as a clear warning to others willing to expose wrongdoing. Many had thought that bombs in this country were only used by criminal gangs to settle scores among themselves. The Bidnija explosion tells another story.
After the October 16 heinous crime, more than fear for their safety, journalists and, indeed, society in general, fear for the well-being of the country.
Democracy is facing a clear and present danger.
Because institutions have been weakened to the point of impotence.
Because sensitive offices have been filled by cronies of the Labour Party in power.
Because the country has been turned into a fiefdom controlled by one person who may not necessarily be the Prime Minister.
Because Labour has mastered the art of playing victim and winning untold sympathy – especially at the polls – even when the criticism is well deserved.
Because the independent media – certainly that section considered unfriendly to Labour – is being presented as irrelevant, enemies of the people. Because the art of deceit reigns supreme.
Those, and a lot more, are the issues Ms Caruana Galizia wrote about and for which she died. They are the issues the media – the ‘free’ press – in this country must continue to promote and expose. For the pen to truly conquer fear, journalists worth their salt need the support – morally and materially – of society. That support must be robust and significant.
Ms Caruana Galizia is dead. Long live journalism.