Daphne Caruana Galizia
7 November 2017
Categories: Anti-corruption, Anti-money laundering, Newsletter, Panama Papers
From the November 2017 Transparency Times
Global shockwaves from bombing of Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia
Free expression and anti-corruption groups hold London vigil for murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia
David Dunsheath
Newsletter Co-Editor
It is with huge dismay that we learn of this tragic event.
On 16 October, Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, wrote her last post on her ‘Running Commentary’ news blog.
Less than an hour later, she was murdered in a car bomb attack. This follows 15 previous car bombings and targeted killings in Malta over the last 10 years, none of which have ever been solved.
Her last blog post makes reference to “… sheltering …. in a top-secret trust in New Zealand, then hunting round the world for a shady bank that would take them as clients. (In the end they solved the problem by setting up a shady bank in Malta, hiding in plain sight.)” She concluded her post with: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate“.
Galizia was often described as a “one-woman Wikileaks” for unflinchingly bringing political dirt to the surface with dogged research into alleged financial corruption by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s inner circle. Her focus was not only Muscat. She also delved into the dealings of Adrian Delia, the new leader of the opposition Nationalist Party.
In recent years she maintained her Running Commentary news blog which attracted thousands of readers per day.
“Her blog and her columns in The Malta Independent became a lone voice of sanity in a sea of whataboutism, shrugging, avoidance and pathological allergies to personal responsibility,” says author Ryan Murdock. He continues “And as Malta descended into astonishing depths of corruption, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog was at the forefront in exposing it all.”
Much of Galizia’s research was based on the Panama Papers leak. One of her sons, Matthew, was on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its work on the Panama Papers scandal.
Malta is placed 47th in the 2016 Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), and is the only EU country without its own chapter of Transparency International.