Leeuwarder Courant is the old newspaper in the Netherlands still in circulation and it’s focused in Friesland and its capital Leeuwarden the other European Capital of Culture 2018. The newspaper today published this feature a year after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The translation below is a Google Translate job so may not be entirely accurate. But you should get the gist.
In a dry, dry field just south of the town of Bidnija the Maltese flag flies. Next to it hangs a drawing of the face of Daphne Caruana Galizia and a banner between two poles with the text ‘Justice’. You have to know that it is here, otherwise you drive past it, down the hill. On this spot, Malta’s most feared journalist was blown up at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on 16 October last year with a bomb under her Peugeot 108. Just over a kilometer from her house.
All of a sudden the magnifying glass came to lie on the smallest land (440,000 inhabitants) within the European Union (EU), which for this was known by many Dutch people as a sunny holiday island, just south of Sicily. The presumed executors of the murder have been caught. No one on the island doubts that the three men acted only on assignment. But from whom?
Caruana Galizia had numerous enemies on Malta and beyond. She studied the Panama Papers shortly before her death, in which people around Prime Minister Joseph Muscat (Labor Party) are linked to Panamanian companies that may be involved in money laundering and tax fraud. She also accused opposition leader Adrian Della of the National Party of money laundering. She almost received daily threats.
A year after the attack it is clear that the relations in the heavily politicized country, where the Labor Party is in control, are at least as tense. It is also clear that Malta is not waiting for interference from Brussels. Let alone from Leeuwarden.
The attempt by LF2018 and the province of Fryslân to restore relations with Malta and Valletta2018, after a joke of V18 executive Jason Micallef at the expense of Caruana Galizia, failed miserably. Valletta and Leeuwarden may both call themselves European Capital of Culture for a few months.
Since the disappointing visit of Minister Owen Bonnici (the culture minister refused to distance himself from Micallef) to LF2018 in July, there has been no contact. Official invitations and visits have been canceled. “We were and do not agree with the attitude of some people within V18 on social media,” says Radboud Droog of LF2018. ,, We said: moderate your tone. That did not happen. ”
As far away as the memorial site is at the murder site on the north side of the island, so visible to everyone is the spontaneous altar that arose around the Great Siege Monument, which recalls the failed siege of the island by the Ottomans in 1565, in the heart from capital city Valletta. Soon the photographs, flowers and texts in memory of the journalist and calls to track the patrons of the murder became a battle between her supporters and the authorities. They had the stuff removed time after time. At the beginning of last month, a meter-high fence with dark canvases was placed around the monument. The official lecture is that restoration work is needed on the almost one hundred year old monument, because of damage caused by dripping candles.
In the lobby of a luxury hotel near the airport, Corinne Vella looks over her shoulder to see if anyone is eavesdropping on her. When Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister is about to say something that might bump into someone’s chest, she begins to talk more softly. “By barricading the monument they try to erase the memory of Daphne”, says Vella. “It’s very Stalinist.”
According to her, the government sees the memorial site near the monument as a “constant reminder that something very bad has happened and that nothing is being done about it and that the real perpetrators are still walking around freely”.
There are individuals and a single civil rights organization that call for a large and transparent investigation into the real perpetrators, but there is no question of a mass popular protest. “In private there is a lot of criticism of the situation, but to really speak out, only a few hundred people do that”, says Vella. “People feel that if they are critical, they can just be fired and harassed on the street and on social media.”
For example, anyone who flowers flowers or lights up a candle at the monument for her sister, runs Vella chance to be photographed by other citizens and to be mentioned on social media by name and then and to be put away as ‘enemy of the state’. A report published by Eurobarometer, the European Commission’s research department last month, reveals that residents of Malta from all EU countries are most likely to experience hateful messages on Facebook and Twitter.
De facto Malta has a two-party system. Since independence in 1964, the country has been governed once by the National Party (‘the blues’) and then again by the Labor Party (Labor Party, ‘the Reds’). Wrongly, according to Vella, her sister was put away as ‘the blogger of National Party’. “She was not a party member and she was not paid by the party,” says Vella. ,, She only said: ‘I vote for the one who keeps Labor out of the government’. Because she regarded them as a danger for basic liberties. ”
The weak point of Maltese society is that everything is permeated with party politics, says Vella. There is hardly any room for free thinkers. “There are brave individuals who make their voices heard, but they conduct a lonely battle.”
Yet several influential critical websites and bloggers have emerged, after the death of Caruana Galizia. For example, there is the Daphne Project, a partnership of international media journalists who say they want to continue their research into ‘corruption, nepotism, clientelism and all kinds of criminal behavior’ in Malta. Then there is The Shift News, a website that the government critically follows with the factoring of statements by the government.
The real successor of Caruana Galizia is Manuel Delia (42). For most of his career he worked within the government for the National Party, two years as spokesman for the Prime Minister, until his party in 2013 lost the Labor elections. Delia then went into business, but since the death of Caruana Galizia, whom he calls his mentor, he finds that there is nothing for him other than critical journalism companies.
Delia lives with his family in one of the quieter villages on the west side of the island. Everywhere on the façade hang cameras from which Delia can play the images in his living room. He hung them after the attack on Caruana Galizia. Not that he is afraid, he says. “I’m not smart enough to be scared,” Delia says, after which he begins to laugh loudly.
He started writing about last year’s elections as a therapy, he says. “I became angrier and angry about what I encountered on the internet.” In the run up to the elections, stories broke up about the corruption within the government. ,, But an alternative reality was created online. Trollers invaded every debate. And that still happens, on Facebook. I had to do something about that in my opinion. A democracy needs people who dare to take on the authorities. ”
He experienced his breakthrough in the Maltese public after last year’s (again won by Labor) elections. He published a 3,000-word analysis, after which Caruana Galizia refrained from giving her views on developments. ,, She wrote: ‘this is exactly what I wanted to say’ and referred to my piece, “says Delia. He watched his mentor becoming deferred and isolated after the elections, after being attacked from the National Party after her critical papers about that party.
On 16 October last year, Delia was working at the office when a friend called him and said, “I think they have Daphne.” ,, I realized immediately that she was dead. I cried like a baby. Daphne was not my family, she was my country. “An hour after the news, he started to write. Every few hours he published a new blog, again as a therapy. The visitor figures of his website shot up: the normal 300 per day suddenly became 22,000.
“I was the only one who wrote something. Everyone was stunned, “says Delia. “The bizarre thing was that a lot of Maltese went to Daphne’s website to read what she had to write about her own death. Absurd of course, but things like that do people when they are in shock. ”
Delia got the choice from his software company, which has foreign owners, to continue working for us or continue writing. “Of course I could not go back to selling software in Nigeria. I had to keep writing. “He has seen that other critical Maltese decided not to speak out anymore, for fear of being punished.
In his own words he himself is ‘satanized’ by the Labor Party and his media. “The Maltese government complained about me in a letter to the British. It is impossible not to be influenced by this type of practice “, says Delia.
“After Daphne’s death we wanted to organize a protest concert, but artists did not dare to come out of fear that they would be used against them”, says Delia. ,, Academics have told me that they have been warned by their personnel department that they have to be careful with giving their opinion. A culture of self-censorship is created. There were many people with strong opinions, but they became quieter and quieter. ”
Criticism of the Maltese government also comes from outside the country. Member of Parliament MP Pieter Omtzigt (CDA) has been investigating the rule of law in Malta since the beginning of this year as a rapporteur for the Council of Europe in connection with the murder of Caruana Galizia and whether the research is carried out independently. His interim report last summer mentions concerns about the rule of law in Malta, the progress of the murder investigation and the attitude and behavior of government officials. According to the report, the prime minister appears to have a great deal of influence on the appointment of judges. In the first days after the murder, a judge was put on the case about whom the Caruana Galizia had written a lot.
Omtzigt fears that the clients will remain unaffected and there is also a chance that the three men who had carried out the murder could be released if they were not tried in the short term. Omtzigt wants to investigate whether Caruana Galizia’s research was the motive for the murder. His final report is expected next summer. The Maltese government said last month that he did not trust Omtzigt because he would be ‘partial and unreliable’.
This week the Council of Europe put the pressure on Malta even further, with the announcement of an investigation into the general independence of the judiciary and law enforcement in the country. The research is being conducted by the Venice Commission, which was once set up to assist Eastern European states in the transition to a democratic system.
Manuel Delia’s note: For some reason Google Translate was very inconsistent when translating the following part of the interview. I regret this and perhaps a Dutch speaking reader can help improve this.
On a terrace in the center of Valletta Ype Visser (63) from Harlingen orders a Kinnie, a Maltese type of soft drink. There will be few Frisians who know the country as well as he does. He has been on the island for 40 years: his wife is Maltese. Nowadays they are more in Malta (the quieter and smaller island of Gozo especially) than in Friesland. He has been annoyed about the news in the Netherlands (“ek yn myn Ljouwerter Krante”) about Malta for a year.
As far as he is concerned, it is all too exhausted by the spectacles of the media that are under the influence of the National Party, including The Times of Malta. “For many years Malta has been interested in the west. And no allinnich nor mar negative ferhalen “, says Visser. Corruption is certain, but according to Visser this should not be exaggerated. “Der sil wol risen in skeve skaats ride, mar that happens yn Nederlân ek. Njoggentich prosint fan the ynwenners within normal pace dy’t gewoan wurkje moatte foar harren jild. ”
Malta is simply an island. ,, I’m really happy with Amelân. Der is altyd resentment. That heart in no ien kear by it libs in eilân “, says Visser. “Regulate ien fan it libben in eilân is: live and let live. And those who are just like that “, says the Harlingen, referring to Caruana Galizia. ,, Se is up in heel soad tennen kicks. Ek op dy fan bye fan har own party. Se skreau on what sy tour that well who. Fake news, hjit that tsjintwurdich, I leap. ”
Culture deputy Sietske Poepjes looks back with mixed feelings on the visit of Bonnici in July. “It’s good that there is a public disc in the market”, says Poepjes. But it has not brought Malta and Friesland closer together. ,, We sit oars yn the contest. Der is in frou fermoarde. That means in a certain respect in eight times. Fan harden side haw I miss that. “As far as Poepjes is concerned, it is now ready. “Uteinlik is just like a soad mear fool. Boppedat: sy in lân and wy in provinsje. ”
,, Wy hawwe hjir dit jier yn Fryslân what skimmed meimakke “, says Poepjes. “I just did not want it to infect Maltezer haadstik nor fierder. It is no klear. ”
At Corinne Vella, the sister of Caruana Galizia, the Frisian action has in any case fallen into good soil. “The reaction was so much stronger than here in Malta.” She says exactly why Bonnici did not disapprove of Micallef’s statements. “If you pull a stone from the wall, more will follow. And at one point he falls over. That is why the Labor Party closes the ranks. ”
Delia just promises to continue writing, no matter how bad the intimidation is. “I want people outside of Malta to understand that this is not the idyllic island that the government wants people to think. I can not allow that hypocrisy “, says Delia. “I am not optimistic about the future of this country. But I continue to be annoying, I keep poking in the side of the power-holders. I’m obliged to Daphne. “