Updated at 12.45pm

Netting blocking off access to the Great Siege Memorial in Valletta was covered in graffiti recalling Daphne Caruana Galizia on Thursday night, 13 months since the journalist was assassinated.

Jason Micallef kept an eye on workers.

Spray paint messages said ‘Daphne was right’ and that the ‘truth is out’, with the number ‘17’ repeated throughout.

Protesters had used the monument as a makeshift memorial to Ms Caruana Galizia until authorities blocked it off without warning, citing "restoration works". 

The graffiti’s message – a reference to Ms Caruana Galizia’s claims that the Electrogas power station deal is mired in corruption – was echoed in banners which were also put up overnight across the country.

Flipped, and then flipped again

Cleansing Department officials appeared at the Republic Street site shortly before noon.

Under the watchful eye of Valletta 2018 Foundation chairman Jason Micallef, they flipped over the graffiti-marked netting blocking access to the monument. 

Despite being turned around, the graffiti remained visible through the netting.

Eyewitnesses told Times of Malta that workers were back at the Great Siege Memorial site less than an hour later - to turn the graffiti-covered netting back around to its original state. 

Banners

Banners saying ‘Daphne was right’ were hung within view of motorists in Msida, Marsa and the Regional Road.

It is not known who sprayed the graffiti or put up the banners, though protest group Occupy Justice tweeted a photo of graffiti being sprayed onto the hoarding. 

Ms Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb explosion on October 16, 2017.

The 13-month anniversary of her murder comes less than two weeks after a joint investigation between Times of Malta and Reuters revealed that an offshore firm intended as a ‘target client’ of Panama companies created by minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri is owned by a director of the Electrogas power station consortium.

Workers flip the netting over.

A banner was put up in a key commuting spot in St Venera