DAPHNE CARUANA GALIZIA

The Maltese government is responding to a critical European human rights evaluation by vowing to soon propose new legislation to better protect journalists in the wake of the 2017 assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The consortium of journalists behind the Pegasus Project investigation into malware from Israel-based NSO Group that provided further evidence that it was used to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents has won the top European Union journalism prize.

Malta's attorney general has indicted a leading Maltese businessman in connection with the 2017 murder of an investigative journalist on the island nation.

The report said the government created a "favorable climate" for the journalist to be killed.

An independent inquiry into the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has found that the Maltese state “has to bear responsibility” for the assassination because of the culture of impunity emanating from the highest levels of government.

(AP Photo/File)ROME – A former top government aide in Malta who was investigated by a journalist later killed by a car bomb has been arraigned in a Maltese court on charges of money-laundering, fraud and corruption. Maltese government officials on Sunday confirmed the development in the case, widely reported by Maltese media. Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia implicated Schembri in cases of alleged corruption before she was killed in Malta in 2017. In her blog, the journalist wrote boldly about corruption and investigated the financial affairs of Maltese politicians and business figures. Caruana Galizia had written that corruption was rife in Malta’s business and political circles.