Three banners depicting three crumbling pillars of democracy were unfurled opposite the parliament building in Valletta on Wednesday evening by activists of #occupyjustice who were marking the 15 months since the assassination of  journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The banners showed three collapsing columns symbolising the executive (the government); the legislature (parliament) and the judiciary (law courts).

“With each day that passes, we look around us and we see that the very foundations of our democracy are being heavily eroded by corruption and the deep-set culture of impunity”, #occupyjustice said.

It said the government was actively supporting corrupt practice. Parliament, instead of upholding the rights of freedom of speech, was revelling in the 'bullying tactics of the government MPs and an ineffective navel-gazing opposition,' with both sides trying to shut up anyone who questioned them.

The law courts had also let the Maltese nation down when Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti declared that he could not consider the Panama Papers as legal grounds for an inquiry to investigate Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, because the Panama Papers were obtained by international journalists by hacking. 

"It is very clear that this country is not functioning as it should, and that the erosion of democracy is happening right under their watch,” #occupyjustice said.

Fifteen months after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia there was 'not even a semblance' of a search for an answer, the group said.