*A small place, Malta. But, big enough to get assassinated for knowing too much.
From POLITICO Europe:
CRUSADING JOURNALIST KILLED IN MALTA CAR BOMB: Daphne Caruana Galizia, a member of the 2017 POLITICO28 list of individuals changing Europe and Malta’s most famous journalist, was killed Monday by a bomb that threw her car into an adjacent field. Galizia’s final blog, posted less than an hour before her death, read: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.”
Playbook described Galizia in an earlier profile as “a one-woman WikiLeaks, crusading against untransparency and corruption in Malta, an island nation famous for both.” Galizia is survived by her husband and three sons, one of whom was jointly awarded a 2017 Pulitizer Prize for his Panama Paper journalism.
Earlier this year Roberta Metsola, a Maltese opposition figure and MEP, sent a letter to European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans urging him to take action against the “intimidation” of journalists in Malta. Timmermans was one of many EU leaders to express horror at the news. “Shocked and outraged … If journalists are silenced, our freedom is lost,” he tweeted.
A Maltese and European problem — how political figures reacted: Galizia’s murder is front-page news. Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Galizia’s frequent target, postponed his government’s budget presentation, requested FBI assistance and said in a written statement: “What happened is unacceptable on all levels. I condemn, without reservations this barbaric attack on a person and on the freedom of expression in our country.” Malta’s former opposition leader Simon Busuttil tweeted: ”Our democracy is at stake.”
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, a former journalist, said Galizia “sacrificed her life to seek out the truth. She won’t be forgotten.” Manfred Weber, leader of Parliament’s European People’s Party, described it as a “dark day for democracy.” Green MEPs called for official investigations given Galizia’s involvement in the Panama Papers exposé. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange offered a €20,000 reward for information on the killing.
