56 months of injustice: ‘Our anger and outrage didn’t fade’

Fifty-six months from the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, efforts to commemorate her work and her unyielding determination to expose corruption have endured the test of time.

On Thursday evening, Occupy Justice member Ann Demarco, an individual who has, along with her fellow activists, ensured the protest memorial to Caruana Galizia in front of Malta’s law courts remains in place, spoke of the heartache faced by activists who have been fighting corruption in Malta.

For the past five years, there were zero convictions of high-profile politicians and their enablers, individuals whose names remain indelibly linked to the plot to assassinate Malta’s leading journalist.

The vigils, which have been organised every month by NGO Repubblika and pressure group Occupy Justice without interruption every month since Caruana Galizia was assassinated on 16 October 2017, renew the call for justice.

“The impunity that continues to reign, the lack of any sort of action whenever the press reveals the latest wrongdoing, the lies, the apparent lack of concern by the population about the crooks running around among us, all these leave me dispirited and heartsore,” Demarco stated.

In spite of this, Demarco insisted on resistance, arguing that this same heartache is exactly what “powerful people who operate with impunity want us to feel” and that the same individuals wished to go on with “business as usual” after Caruana Galizia was killed.

“The anger and outrage that the public felt on the 16th of October soon began to fade, and that’s what the people in power counted on. But our anger and outrage didn’t fade. And despite the feeling of weariness and occasional uselessness, it still hasn’t,” she added.

The Occupy Justice activist concluded her speech by speaking about Caruana Galizia’s legacy as a writer, referring to some of her more popular posts on her blog and quoting from them to illustrate her admiration for the slain journalist.

During the same vigil, Lisandru Laban-Giuliani spoke on behalf of French NGO Collectif Avanti!, whose words were broadcast in front of the law courts in Valletta directly from a parallel gathering being held in front of Marseille’s Palais de Justice.

“Tonight, we salute the determination, courage and perseverance of those who continue to remind the world that there has still been no justice for Daphne,” Laban-Giuliani stated.

“We echo their fight on this side of the Mediterranean: until the culprits of Daphne’s assassination are condemned, from the highest peak to the lowest, from the sponsors to the performers, civil society will not leave those responsible in peace. Let the assassins hear it, let them know it: the circle of her supporters is growing every day in the world. We are here, and we will not allow her stories to disappear,” he added.

Laban-Giuliani drew a parallel between the present press freedom situation in Europe and the situation faced by Italy when it was forced to come to grips with its mafia problems in the late 80s and the early 90s.

“Our observation today is that we are experiencing such a worrying situation in Europe as it was in Italy years ago: in Malta as in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium,” Laban-Giuliani said.

“Daphne’s murder obliges us: her death is now our heritage, our raised fist and our dignity. We will always refuse to be governed by the mafia. We will always refuse impunity, corruption, violence and assassinations,” he added.

Joanna Agius from Repubblika also addressed those gathered, while Alex Gaglione, president of the Kunsill Studenti Universitarji (KSU), spoke to the need for student organisations to engage in direct political activism. “After five years, we are yet to recognise Daphne’s work,” Gaglione said at the vigil which is held every month to renew the call for justice for the assassinated journalist.