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Thousands march in Malta over journalist killed in car bomb | Thousands march in Malta over journalist killed in car bomb |
(35 minutes later) | |
Thousands of Maltese citizens joined a rally to honour an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb. | Thousands of Maltese citizens joined a rally to honour an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb. |
But the prime minister and opposition leader who were chief targets of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s reporting stayed away from the gathering on Sunday. | |
Participants at the rally in Malta’s capital, Valletta, placed flowers at the foot of a memorial to the 53-year-old reporter that sprang up opposite the law court building after her killing on Monday. | |
Some wore T-shirts or carried placards emblazoned with words from Ms Caruana Galizia’s final blog post: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.” | |
Police removed a banner describing Malta as a “Mafia state”. | |
Hundreds of participants later held a sit-in outside police headquarters, demanding the resignation of Malta’s police commissioner. | |
Some hurled tomatoes, cakes and coins against an enlarged photograph of the commissioner spread out on the street. | Some hurled tomatoes, cakes and coins against an enlarged photograph of the commissioner spread out on the street. |
The murder of a journalist who devoted her career to exposing wrongdoing in Malta and raised her three sons there united many of the nation’s fractious politicians, at least for a day. | |
Ms Caruana Galizia had repeatedly criticised police and judicial officials. | Ms Caruana Galizia had repeatedly criticised police and judicial officials. |
Malta’s two dominant political forces, the ruling Labor and opposition Nationalist parties, participated in the rally which was organised to press demands for justice in her killing. | |
But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told his Labor party’s radio station a few hours before the event’s start time that he would not attend because he knew the anti-corruption reporter’s family did not want him to be there. | |
“I know where I should be and where I should not be. I am not a hypocrite and I recognise the signs,” he said, adding that he supported the rally’s call for justice and national unity. | |
Nationalist leader Adrian Delia also skipped the rally, saying he did not want to “stir controversy”. | |
“Today is not about me, but about the rule of law and democracy,” he told reporters. | |
Mr Muscat and Mr Delia, while fierce political rivals, have another thing in common, as both brought libel lawsuits against Ms Caruana Galizia. | Mr Muscat and Mr Delia, while fierce political rivals, have another thing in common, as both brought libel lawsuits against Ms Caruana Galizia. |
Mr Delia withdrew his pending libel cases last week after her killing. | Mr Delia withdrew his pending libel cases last week after her killing. |
Ms Caruana Galizia’s family has refused to endorse the government’s offer of a €1 million (£890,000) reward and full protection to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of her killer or killers. | |
Instead, the family, which includes a son who is an investigative journalist himself, has demanded that Mr Muscat resign. | Instead, the family, which includes a son who is an investigative journalist himself, has demanded that Mr Muscat resign. |
In their quest for a serious and efficient investigation, Ms Caruana Galizia’s husband and children also want Malta’s top police office and attorney general replaced. | |
“The killers decided to silence her, but they won’t silence her spirit, they won’t silence us,” Christophe Deloire, a French journalist from the journalism advocacy organisation Reporters Without Borders, said. | |
“From us they will not have more than one minute of silence.” | |
On Sunday morning, all seven national newspapers printed black front pages in Ms Caruana Galizia’s memory. Printed in bold letters against the black backgrounds were the words: “The pen conquers fear.” | |
Just before her death, Ms Caruana Galizia had posted on her closely followed blog, Running Commentary, that there were “crooks everywhere” in Malta. | |
The island nation has a reputation as a tax haven in the EU and has attracted companies and money from outside Europe. | The island nation has a reputation as a tax haven in the EU and has attracted companies and money from outside Europe. |
The journalist focused her reporting for years on investigating political corruption and scandals, and writing about Maltese mobsters and the island’s drug trafficking. | |
She also wrote about Maltese links to the so-called Panama Papers leaks about offshore financial havens. | She also wrote about Maltese links to the so-called Panama Papers leaks about offshore financial havens. |
After the rally ended, several hundred participants walked to police headquarters and sat in the street outside shouting “Shame on you!” and “Resign!” | |
Malta President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca received a delegation from the Civil Society Network, a non-partisan organisation of university professors, businessmen, opinion writers and authors in Malta. | Malta President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca received a delegation from the Civil Society Network, a non-partisan organisation of university professors, businessmen, opinion writers and authors in Malta. |
The car bombing was “an attack on all of us, every single one of us,” she told them. | |
“We need to see how we are going to work together. We need to unite to have the reform that is needed.” | |
AP | AP |
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