I want to give you a rare behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like being an investigative journalist in Malta after the car bomb assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
And so I reached out to my friend Caroline Muscat, founder and editor-in-chief of The Shift, the Maltese investigative news portal where I was a weekly columnist for over four years.
If you’ve read my new book A Sunny Place for Shady People, you’ll be aware of the circumstances surrounding Daphne’s brutal murder and the struggle of her family to get something resembling justice for her and her stories.
I asked Caroline what it was like to live through those events, and to pick up the torch and carry on some of those investigations.
We also spoke about the situation in Malta now, more than six years later.
I hope you’ll spare half an hour to watch our conversation:
Sadly, very little has changed.
Journalists in Malta are still under threat from their own government. The State continues to attack those who try to hold it accountable, using some of the very same tactics they turned on Daphne.
And those who ordered Daphne’s murder — and those who benefitted most from her silence — have not been brought to justice.
Contrary to what the Maltese government’s well-timed international press releases attempt to imply, the situation is far from case closed, but much of the world has moved on.
Outside pressure can help. The more people who know this story the harder it is for the authorities in Malta to shield those involved from justice.
Foreign governments can’t change things in a small island country at the centre of the Mediterranean. But they can make it increasingly uncomfortable to maintain the sordid status quo.
I hope you find this conversation with Caroline interesting.
If you’d like to help, you could start by sharing it with others.
You can also support The Shift more directly with a donation, however small. I know how hard they struggle to do impeccable investigative journalism while fending off threats and keeping the lights on.
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