A Maltese business tycoon, Yorgen Fenech, was acquitted in September of complicity and criminal association in the 2017 murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, leaving the question of who ordered her assassination unresolved and prompting warnings that journalists everywhere are now at greater risk.
The acquittal is the latest turn in a case that sparked global outrage when Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb while investigating offshore companies with links to the Maltese establishment. Nearly a decade later, no individual has been held accountable for ordering her killing.
"Everybody is much more at risk now because this signals you can kill journalists with impunity," her sister said after the verdict.
Writing in Foreign Policy, Antonio Zappulla, chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, presents the case as an extreme demonstration of the connection between impunity, defined as the exercise of power without accountability, and press freedom. He says this connection is a key finding in a broader mapping of global impunity.
Zappulla argues that the failure to secure justice in the Caruana Galizia case is not an isolated failing but evidence of a wider pattern in which attacks on journalists go unpunished, eroding the safety of reporters worldwide.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- The case is a test of whether states will hold the people who order journalist killings to account, not just those who carry them out.
- An acquittal at this level can signal to would-be attackers that killing a journalist carries little consequence.
- Press freedom advocates see the Maltese case as a bellwether for a global trend, and the article points to broader data on impunity still to come.
Background
Daphne Caruana Galizia was one of Malta's most prominent investigative journalists, known for exposing alleged corruption among the country's political and business elite. Her assassination in 2017 sparked international outrage and set off years of legal proceedings. The recent acquittal concerns a business figure accused of complicity in the murder, but it does not resolve the separate question of who ordered it.
Key Perspectives
The Caruana Galizia family and press freedom groups: The verdict proves that powerful figures can kill journalists without consequence, and that the risk to reporters is rising.
The Maltese legal system: The trial followed due process and the court found the evidence insufficient to convict on the charges of complicity and criminal association; the verdict stands unless successfully appealed.
Critics and skeptics: Watchdogs caution that an acquittal does not automatically mean impunity, but without progress on the question of who ordered the killing, the perception of impunity will persist and may embolden future attacks.
What to Watch
- The publication of the broader mapping of global impunity that the article teases, which could place the Maltese case in a wider statistical context.
- Any appeal or further proceedings that could revisit the question of who ordered the assassination.
- The response of international bodies that monitor rule of law and media freedom in Malta and elsewhere.