WATCH: Daphne Caruana Galizia Honoured By Euronews As Sons Vow To Keep Her Legacy Alive
Assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was granted a special award for her contribution to society at last night’s European Leadership Awards – a prestigious event organised by Euronews and the European Business Summit.
Accepting the award from European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, the late journalist’s sons Matthew and Andrew warned the audience that the Maltese government is presiding over a coordinated attempt to ruin their mother’s legacy.
“A journalist’s legacy can be destroyed by encouraging people to forget her, hoping they will also forget her work, as well as the fact that whoever paid for her assassination continues to enjoy full impunity,” a clearly emotional Andrew Caruana Galizia said. “My country’s Home Affairs Minister downplayed my mother’s targeted killing as ‘unlucky’, the Finance Minister described the global outrage that followed her death as ‘exaggerated’, and the Prime Minister signalled two months after her funeral that it was time to move on.”
“A makeshift memorial to my mother in Valletta, which happens to be this year’s European Capital of Culture, has been removed nine times and replaced ten times. Banners put up to keep her memory alive are constantly being torn down and put up again. Vigils held to mark the 16th of every month, the day my mother was killed, never make it to state television and the organisers are jeered at in the street and mocked by public officials.”
“My mother is now beyond all and any harm and no longer needs anyone’s protection. But her memory continues to be targeted by powerful people who won’t rest until her legacy has been completely destroyed. We can’t let that happen.”
Tajani pledged to keep the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia at the top of his agenda until the people who masterminded the killing are brought to justice.
“Nothing will ever stop me fighting to find out why Daphne was killed,” he said. “We know the name of the killers, but we want to know why she was murdered and who ordered it.”
READ NEXT: Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Family Hands Over Assassinated Journalist’s Laptops To German Police
