The Foundation was nominated by Casa for promoting the core rights enshrined in the Charter on Fundamental Freedoms through awareness-raising, capacity-building and litigation aimed at instituting change. 

“The assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia shocked the world. For Malta, it exposed glaring flaws in the way it was governed, in the way its institutions were undermined, and in how the rule of law was eroded,” said Casa. 

Casa stated that the Foundation’s work is not only vital in promoting European values, but serves to defend and promote human rights and rule of law, which he calls “essential principles, without which we would cease to be a democracy”. 

The European Citizen’s Prize was launched by the European Parliament in 2008 in recognition of initiatives that contribute to European cooperation and the promotion of common values, including EU values and fundamental rights.

The Foundation is responsible for the Public Interest Litigation Network (PILN), which is Malta’s first-ever access to justice initiative, composed of lawyers and law firms offering legal representation to victims of discrimination, human rights violations, abuse of power and state collusion in criminal activity. 

The scope of PILN is to create legal precedents to improve the good governance and human rights credentials of Malta, and to curtail abusive action by state through legal action.

The Malta Investigative Journalism Centre (MIJC) was also set up by the Foundation to train and equip independent journalists with the tools to investigate public interest stories. 

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation was founded by the family of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia after she was assassinated by a car bomb on 16th October 2017.

The Foundation was set up to ensure that justice was served for her murder to safeguard her work and to strengthen civil society and the media.

The public inquiry into her assassination – which was the first of its kind in Malta – found that her assassination was both predictable and preventable and that the Maltese state must shoulder responsibility for creating a culture of impunity that enabled her assassination. 

Almost five years after her brutal assassination and multiple arrests, no one has yet been taken to trial in court over her death. 

This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. This article reflects only the author’s view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

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