The cruel insinuation, although very rarely verbalised by the people spreading this theory, is that the journalist’s family was somehow involved in the assassination itself.

This conspiracy theory picked up a lot of steam in 2018 after a consortium of journalists formed the ‘Daphne Project’ to continue the journalist’s stories.

Supporters of then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat pushed forward a campaign called ‘The Truth Project’ to cast doubt on the family’s intentions and blame them for Caruana Galizia’s murder.

“I think in many cases, they say these things because they feel guilty and a way to feel less guilty is to blame someone else,” Caruana Galizia postulated. “So they look for any explanation, no matter how ridiculous, like asking why the dog didn’t bark.”

“They’re shifting the blame from themselves and onto a dog; imagine blaming a dog for putting a bomb inside a car and blowing it up.”

The assassinated journalist’s son added that keeping in mind that the “crazy and deranged” conspiracy theories are nothing but a guilt-shifting exercise helps stem his anger.

Opening up about his own emotions, Caruana Galizia said he felt so angry after his mother was murdered that he wanted to go to Castille, kick Muscat’s office door down and beat him to the floor.

However, he realised this wasn’t going to get him anywhere and decided to channel his anger into productive efforts to seek justice for his mother’s murder. 

Have you watched Jon Mallia’s podcast with Matthew Caruana Galizia?