Picture shows the site where Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered, in Bidnija, Malta.
18/9/26
The Commonwealth Journalists Association expresses its shock and dismay after a court in Malta on 2 September acquitted a key suspect, businessman Jorgen Fenech, of complicity in the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, as well as a second charge of criminal conspiracy to commit the murder on 16 October 2017.
The court heard that Fenech had wanted the journalist killed because she was about to reveal information about him.
The European Federation of Journalists said Daphne Caruana Galizia had been “assassinated for exposing corruption” and that the court’s verdict was made more painful because of what it called the “alarming evidence” which had been presented of the suspect’s involvement in the murder. Three other men have been convicted of carrying out the killing and two for supplying the bomb.
Recommendations for urgent steps for Commonwealth countries to take to comply with UN standards for protecting journalists from targeted attacks and ending impunity were set out in Who Controls the Narrative? Legal Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the Commonwealth , a 2025 publication published by the CJA, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association.
The family of the murdered journalist declared: ‘Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed” and said they would seek to appeal against the acquittal. Reporters Without Borders demanded: “Full justice must be served, and Maltese authorities must implement the long overdue measures protecting journalists and media freedom – the absence of these measures contributed to Daphne’s murder”.
UK peer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, who is preparing a report on Daphne’s murder and subsequent events in Malta for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, called for justice to be done and cited the conclusions of an independent inquiry in Malta in 2021. It found that the Maltese state must “shoulder responsibility” for Daphne’s killing because it had created a climate of impunity emanating from the highest levels of the government which spread to its institutions and police.
Chakrabarti deplored Malta’s failure to implement many of the required judicial and administative reforms. On September 10 the European Parliament’s Monitoring Group on Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights announced it will conduct a fact-finding mission and step up scrutiny of Malta.
The CJA has repeatedly called on the Commonwealth to use its authority to speak out against failure of the authorities in Malta to bring the mastermind of Daphne’s murder to justice, and to apply political pressure on all member states of the organisation to repair systemic weaknesses in governance that have enabled the shockingly high (96 percent) rate of impunity demonstrated by data which is monitored and published by UNESCO’s Observatory of Killed Journalists .
International advocacy groups and Maltese communities plan to hold special vigils and public protests in major European capitals to mark the ninth anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death on October 16th.
* London demands justice for Caruana Galizia
* CJA demands justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia on 4th anniversary of her murder
