The investigations into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia are monitored daily by non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) who is working tirelessly to ensure there never is another similar attack in Malta.
Speaking during a debate on freedom of speech on Friday afternoon, head of the NGO’s EU desk Pauline Adès-Mével said the murder of the journalist was an rare event that shocked the world, insisting that RSF was “not pleased with the situation right now”.
“By eroding fundamental freedoms, democracies are at risk of losing their souls. Malta is a good example of this... Daphne’s murder was the first of its kind in Europe after that of Charlie Hebdo,” Ms Adès-Mével said.
By eroding fundamental freedoms, democracies are at risk of losing their souls
Echoing similar concerns on the loss of freedoms, Belarusian Association of Journalists vice-president Michal Janczuk warned that freedom is not something that is given once and forever, admitting his own country started to fight corruption when it was too late.
"Freedom is not given once and forever; it is almost invisible when you have it, like air, and you almost forget its existence. But, like air, when it starts to disappear, you start to feel it immediately.
"Please do not wait for the person who controls the air pump to control the air before taking action,” Mr Janczuk told those present at the debate organised by the European Parliament liaison office and held at Europe House in Valletta
On her part, Nationalist Party MEP Roberta Metsola insisted that Europe was more than just an economic bloc and its strength exists in the upholding of common values.
“We are the first generation of politicians to not know war. It is even more essential to not forget what happened and what can happen. The entire European project is built on the certainty of our values.
“Without an unshackled media we would only have the illusion of a proper democracy,” Dr Metsola said.
Labour MEP Alfred Sant argued that many forget that socio-economic factors play major part in dominating people’s beliefs, insisting that it is not just politicians who are the problem.
“There are big powerful interests which want to dominate our beliefs and our realities and we tend to take this for granted. Socio-economic factors needs to be understood,” Dr Sant pointed out.
Nationalist MEP Francis Zammit Dimech insisted that in Europe and especially in Malta, “facts were becoming option”, urging those present to stand and be counted.
Mario Schiavone from the Institute of Journalists chastised the government for refusing some 40 per cent of Freedom of Information requests, saying that journalists should not be denied the right to information as this limited their ability to their job.
Civil Network Society co-founder Michael Briguglio, pointed out that while it had been over 100 days since Ms Caruana Galizia’s murder, there seems to have been little progress on who ordered the murder and insisted that those activists who have been speaking out since the murder will not stop doing so despite being threatened by “government trolls”.
“We are really living in a terrible situation. Online we have trolls who single out activists and those are subtle threats. How can one be calm in such a situation? We are not going to stop. We are contacting international NGOs who have already given us their support,” Dr Briguglio said.