‘She’d Turn 58 Soon’: Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Niece Gives Impassioned Speech At 58th Vigil
Daphne Caruana Galizia’s niece, Amy Mallia, gave an impassioned speech this evening during the 58th vigil in remembrance of the assassinated journalist.
Marking 58 months since the brutal and senseless assassination of Caruana Galizia, activists gathered in Valletta to continue with their call for truth and justice.
Activist and student Mallia started off her moving speech by listing all of the ways possible that Caruana Galizia could have existed in others’ lives, be it as a mother, as a sister, or as a friend.
“We all knew one version or another of Daphne. But I never thought in a million years that I would be seeing the version of her that was reduced to just another statistic – that of assassinated journalists,” Mallia said.
“Nor the version of her whose burning car I have images of forever ingrained in my mind, desperately calling her number over and over again at 3.19pm on the 16th of October of 2017, just after school, hoping that the horrifying news we had just received was a mistake,” she said.
Mallia recounted how horrible it was to receive the awful news, how she hoped that her aunt was still alive, continuing to refresh news portals’ websites.
“Only to deduce, on seeing a horrific photograph in those frantic minutes, that Daphne could never have survived the blast, that blew her and her car to pieces mere metres from her home.”
“It is scary that anyone allegedly involved in the assassination of a journalist is also still referred to as a “businessman” or a “business mogul”, rather than as a “murder suspect”, because after all, that is exactly what they are,” she expressed.
“Nobody should normalise murder, nor should murder be trivialised. Nobody should remain complacent when a journalist is murdered.”
Mallia also explained the symbolism behind the number 58, which currently marks the 58th month since her death, and the age Daphne would be turning had she still been alive.
“It would be Daphne’s 58th birthday on the 26th of August. But we won’t be celebrating Daphne’s birthday with her that day. Some of us will instead be sitting in court facing one of the men charged with her brutal murder.”
“We can’t celebrate with Daphne. We can only celebrate her.”
“Fifty-eight months have elapsed since Daphne’s assassination. Fifty-eight months of no justice for Daphne. FULL justice for Daphne MUST be served. And it must be served in the lifetime of those Daphne left behind,” she concluded.
Feature image: Daphne Caruana Galizia with Amy Mallia
What do you make of Mallia’s speech?
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