A new book on the hardships and hostility faced by journalists includes Daphne Caruana Galizia’s last interview, conducted just 10 days before her murder.

Entitled “A Mission To Inform: Journalists Speak Out”, the non-fiction work is based on interviews with a handful of European journalists. Through the documentation of their complex experiences, it details the different pressures, threats and hurdles they face, often in their own words, and how they build resilience to continue despite them.

“At times, the price these women and men have had to pay for standing by their obligation to inform the public in an impartial and complete way was enormous, ranging from intrusions and limitations on private and family life, to putting their lives at risk,” an extract of the book reads.

It makes explicit mention of Caruana Galizia, who reported fearlessly on sensitive issues like corruption despite constant threats. She was murdered a little over a week after the interview, making it her last before the assassination in 2017.

Building upon a 2017 study “Journalists Under Pressure”, which surveyed around 1000 journalists across Europe who face interference, censorship and fear at work, this book was co-authored by Maltese psychology lecturer and academic Prof. Marilyn Clark and renowned independent journalist William Horsely, who also heads the Centre for Freedom of Media (CFOM).

From the insights of the 20 testimonies, the book ends with a call for bold measures to protect journalists who risk their lives to report and inform and in doing so, ensure a free, independent media sphere.

It calls to introduce legal and regulatory reforms; effective measures of protection; improved oversight and reporting mechanisms to guard against threats; public media literacy programmes; and additional support through professional training and psychosocial support for journalists who need it.

You can order your own copy of the book here.

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