- The State had the duty to investigate and act on the revelations exposed by Daphne Caruana Galizia in a timely manner, without any consideration of the power and influence enjoyed by the perpetrators of the crimes she documented.
- The State had the duty to ensure that as a journalist and an active citizen providing a service to the country with her journalism and activism, Daphne Caruana Galizia was protected from any retribution.
- The State had and has the duty to investigate threats to Daphne’s life, family and property, to prosecute perpetrators of acts of intimidation and violence against her over the years including acts of vandalism on her property, which in one case at least was life-threatening, and the killing or harming of her dogs.
- The State had the duty to ensure that broadcasters, including broadcasting media owned by political parties, cover matters of political controversy with due impartiality as is required by the Constitution. That would have included allowing Daphne Caruana Galizia’s point of view to be broadcast along with the attacks on her credibility by people she reported on.
- The State had the duty to treat Daphne Caruana Galizia and her family fairly and not subject them to retribution such as the premature and unjustified punitive redeployment of one of her sons in the diplomatic service.
The State failed in all of these duties before Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination in spite of the fact that institutions were fully aware of the facts described here. These are the facts that led Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri to express his concerns in his speech of October 2017.16 These are the facts that created the environment in which Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed a few days later.