Malta’s prime minister has appealed for national unity following the murder of a campaigning journalist who had accused his government of corruption.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, achieved fame and notoriety for investigative reporting laced with scathing commentary about allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen. She was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car.
Police said the bomb went off while she was driving near the village of Bidnija in northern Malta on Monday afternoon.
Joseph Muscat, the Maltese Prime Minister, denounced her murder as a "barbaric attack on press freedom".
"I will not rest until I see justice done in this case. Our country deserves justice," he said in a televised statement.
Caruna Galizia’s blog, Running Commentary, was one the most widely read websites on Malta and led the investigation of corruption allegations stemming from revelations in the so-called Panama Papers leak.
It was famed for a relentless pursuit of cases of apparent corruption and incendiary, sometimes highly personal, comments that saw her embroiled in frequent legal battles.
Earlier this year Politico magazine listed her as one of the 28 men and women “making and shaking Europe” for her unrelenting crusade against what she saw as Malta’s culture of “cronyism” and opaque government.
In 2016 she reported Konrad Mizzi, the then energy Minister, and Keith Schembri, Mr Muscat’s chief of staff, were named in the Panama Papers leak as owners of off shore companies.
Both men denied wrong doing.
Earlier this year Caruna Galizia claimed documents from a small Malta-based bank showed that Mr Muscat’s wife was the beneficial owner of a company in Panama, and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts in Azerbaijan.
The couple denied the accusation. Mr Muscat called - and won - early elections in June as a vote of confidence to counter Caruana Galizia's allegations of corruption.
In her last blog post, published just hours before she died, she bemoaned the lack of progress in prosecuting alleged corruption cases.
“There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate,” she wrote in the last line.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, achieved fame and notoriety for investigative reporting laced with scathing commentary about allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen. She was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car.
Police said the bomb went off while she was driving near the village of Bidnija in northern Malta on Monday afternoon.
Joseph Muscat, the Maltese Prime Minister, denounced her murder as a "barbaric attack on press freedom".
"I will not rest until I see justice done in this case. Our country deserves justice," he said in a televised statement.
Caruna Galizia’s blog, Running Commentary, was one the most widely read websites on Malta and led the investigation of corruption allegations stemming from revelations in the so-called Panama Papers leak.
It was famed for a relentless pursuit of cases of apparent corruption and incendiary, sometimes highly personal, comments that saw her embroiled in frequent legal battles.
Earlier this year Politico magazine listed her as one of the 28 men and women “making and shaking Europe” for her unrelenting crusade against what she saw as Malta’s culture of “cronyism” and opaque government.
In 2016 she reported Konrad Mizzi, the then energy Minister, and Keith Schembri, Mr Muscat’s chief of staff, were named in the Panama Papers leak as owners of off shore companies.
Both men denied wrong doing.
Earlier this year Caruna Galizia claimed documents from a small Malta-based bank showed that Mr Muscat’s wife was the beneficial owner of a company in Panama, and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts in Azerbaijan.
The couple denied the accusation. Mr Muscat called - and won - early elections in June as a vote of confidence to counter Caruana Galizia's allegations of corruption.
In her last blog post, published just hours before she died, she bemoaned the lack of progress in prosecuting alleged corruption cases.
“There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate,” she wrote in the last line.