“The fact that a view is held by large numbers of people does not make it right.“
🌿 Join us on Tuesday 16th April to celebrate and honour the life and work of a brave investigative journalist who paid the ultimate sacrifice for love of country.
1️⃣ In Memoriam Mass
📍 St Francis of Assisi Church, Valletta
⏰️ 6.00 p.m.
Presided by Mgr Joseph Bajada
2️⃣ Vigil for Truth and Justice
📍 Great Siege Square, Valletta
⏰️ 7.00 p.m.
🎤 Speakers
Vicki Ann Cremona
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC
Colm Regan
Martina Farrugia
🎤 Compèred by Alessandra Dee Crespo
📸 Jon Borg
Guest speakers:
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is an international human rights lawyer and an expert in accountability for crimes against journalists. She leads the international legal teams for the bereaved family of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia; for Hong Kong publisher and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai; for hundreds of BBC News Persian and Iran International journalists targeted transnationally by Iran; and (jointly with Amal Clooney) for Maria Ressa, the Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist in the Philippines.
Caoilfhionn has given expert evidence to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on gender-based violence and risks to female journalists, and on journalists’ safety to Parliamentary inquiries in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Council of Europe, and to UNESCO.
Caoilfhionn also acts in many cases involving arbitrary detention: she has secured the freedom of imprisoned journalists, cartoonists and human rights defenders in countries worldwide including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea and Pakistan.
Caoilfhionn is also a Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission; Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection; an Adjunct Full Professor at University College Dublin; and a Board Member of CPJ. In January 2024 she was awarded the President of Ireland’s Distinguished Service Award.
Colm Regan is a graduate of University College Dublin with post-graduate qualifications from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (MA), and McGill University, Montreal (PhD).
He has worked extensively on human rights issues in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Zambia, Rwanda, Brazil, and Australia.
Previously, Colm was Co-ordinator of Irish NGO 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World and has been living and working in Gozo, Malta – teaching, writing, and publishing.
In recent years, Colm was a member of the Executive Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and Chairperson of its Human Rights Education Working Group.
Colm has published widely and is co-editor of the international development and human rights resource 80:20 Development in An Unequal World now in its 8th edition.
Colm is currently a Visiting Lecturer at the Centre for the Study and Practice of Conflict Resolution, University of Malta and is also a regular columnist with the Times of Malta.