Malta's Silence: Daphne's Verdict Still Costs Others
Malta has had years to transpose the kind of anti-SLAPP legislation and source-protection frameworks that the European Union has been pressing member states to adopt.
Malta's Silence: Daphne's Verdict Still Costs Others
A verdict that should have marked an ending has instead exposed how little has changed. The Council of Europe inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia heard this week that Malta's failure to implement basic legal protections for journalists is still putting reporters at risk — and that the verdict in her case sent, in the words of one Labour peer giving evidence, "a chill down the spine."
The concern is structural, not symbolic. Malta has had years to transpose the kind of anti-SLAPP legislation and source-protection frameworks that the European Union has been pressing member states to adopt. According to The Guardian's reporting on the inquiry, it has not moved fast enough — and the international community is running out of patience for explanations.
What makes this particular warning different is where it lands. The Council of Europe does not issue these assessments lightly, and Malta is not a country that can afford to be seen resisting democratic accountability — not with its financial services sector, its iGaming licence economy, and its EU reputation all dependent on the presumption of rule of law.
One journalist died asking questions that powerful men preferred unanswered. The state has prosecuted her killers. It has not yet built the world where her successors are safe to do what she did.
The door was never quite closed. It still isn't.
