VALLETTA: Malta’s journalists rallied on Thursday to insist they would not be intimidated by the brutal assassination that silenced the country’s foremost investigative writer.

Hundreds of news industry workers gathered outside the parliament in Valletta, holding up front pages and placards splattered in blood-red paint, as the sons of Daphne Caruana Galizia dismissed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s offer of a reward to help find her killers and called for him to quit.

“We stand here today to give hope to society,” said Herman Grech, online editor at The Times of Malta, reading a common statement on the industry’s behalf.

“This attack on one of us will not stop us from shining a light where others want darkness. The attack on one of us will not muzzle us. The attack on one of us will not stop us from fulfilling our role as a watchdog to the institutions. We will stand up to intimidation.”

The statement urged the government to promote press freedom and stop tolerating incitement against the Mediterranean island nation’s free media.

“We will not stop. We will not be afraid,” Grech concluded, to heavy applause.

The journalists marched to the Courts of Justice, where an application was filed calling for the investigation into Caruana Galizia’s murder to ensure her sources are protected. The anti-corruption campaigner was killed in a car bomb attack on Monday.

Malta’s newspapers, broadcasters and online media, including the country’s politically partisan outlets, will all carry a common message about press freedom on Sunday.

“We have agreed a national campaign under the slogan: ‘the pen conquers fear’,” Norma Saliba, chair of the Institute of Maltese Journalists, said. “Many reporters have felt threatened. We have to report what the people want and need to know,” Saliba said.

The murder has caused international shock and prompted much soul-searching in Malta over whether the country is becoming a cesspit of corruption against the backdrop of an economic boom in which organised crime and money-laundering have reportedly flourished.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017