When Daphne Caruana Galizia reported that Chris Cardona acted inappropriately while on an official business trip, he retaliated with vexatious libel suits and a paralysing garnishee order. He remained unable to sustain his claim that he had been wrongfully accused and in fact abandoned his case in court, with the result that Daphne Caruana Galizia’s reporting stands.
At the time of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi, Chris Cardona and others had no reason to believe that any of the innumerable scandals in which they were involved, would have led them to suffer any consequences, and force them to resign. Daphne Caruana Galizia had exposed most of these scandals and brought them to public attention.
The above and other episodes demonstrate in our view that proximity to Joseph Muscat guaranteed impunity to perpetrators of crime or wrongdoing, creating a very dangerous atmosphere for the journalist exposing them.