Turkish politician Gülsün Bilgehan said on Thursday no stone should be left unturned to shed as much light as possible on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

She was speaking at a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Brussels that focused on the empowerment of women and girls in the media and information and communication technology on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Ms Bilgehan noted there were sectors in media where female journalists faced higher risks of being attacked. This was particularly the case for investigative journalists like Ms Caruana Galizia, she noted.

Another year had passed and, yet, gender equality was still an objective we still had to achieve.

A glass ceiling was holding women back across all 47 member states of the Council of Europe, she added, saying that sanctions and policies that promoted work-life balance had to be put in place.

Women’s careers were generally shorter and, in the case of journalists, reconciling family life with the job became even harder when one was a parent.

Female journalists under the age of 30 were often harassed, Ms Bilgehan said.

She referred to the case of BBC’s China desk editor, Carrie Gracie, who resigned earlier this year because of a salary disparity on grounds of gender.

There was no simple solution to ensure gender equality, she concluded, noting that a number of bodies had adopted the Istanbul convention which protected women against violence, including at the home. Signing and ratifying the convention was not sufficient, Ms Bilgehan warned, stressing the need for enforcement.

MEPs who addressed the meeting called on the Turkish government to release female reporters jailed in connection with their work.

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola told the Times of Malta Ms Caruana Galizia was mistreated. She had faced many challenges and people even set up websites dedicated to her vilification.

Such behaviour, Dr Metsola said, would not have happened to a male journalist.