On the 8th anniversary of the appalling murder on 16 October 2017 of the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Association of European Journalists and other press freedom and journalists’ groups have sent a joint message to the government of Malta calling on it to set up a national action plan on media freedom and journalist safety.
Our organisations welcome the call by the Maltese authorities for public consultations on media freedom and submit a set of recommendations in this paper .
The implementation of these proposals would be a meaningful and necessary way to honour the extraordinary life and legacy of Daphne Caruana Galizia, whose assassination in a remote-controlled car bomb explosion deeply shocked Europe. The opening of public consultations follows years of demands for sweeping institutional and rule of law reforms in Malta, whose record has been the subject of close international scrutiny since the journalist’s murder.
Such reforms present a historic opportunity for creating robust new protections for press freedom and the personal seafty of media workers in Malta and across Europe. Press freedom and journalists’ groups call for draft legislation to be prepared and drafted following transparent consultations with Maltese and international civil society, journalists’ organisations, media freedom experts, and relevant European institutiosn, before being enacted and introduced.
Our organisations are tracking the existing reform proposal put forward by the Maltese authorities in response to the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). Some of our recommendations identify areas of concern that require a more vigorous and effective state responses than those outlined in the August 2025 legal notice.
This statement provides an overview of key international standards and texts that should provide a solid basis for shaping the planning and implementation of future legislative and non-legislative measures to protect journalists and their work
