The Maltese Community Council of Victoria has given a posthumous award to slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia for “general services to the broader Maltese community and her valuable contribution to democracy in Malta through her fearless investigative journalism”.
Ms Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb in Bidnija on October 16.
The council said that the assassination exposed the fragility of democracy in Malta.
Ms Caruana Galizia valued her search for the truth and reporting on it more than her own life. The public and horrific method of her execution sent a clear intimidating message to others that freedom of expression came at a hefty price, it said.
“Her untimely death needs to inspire other journalists and media houses in Malta to follow her lead and be as courageous as she was in using investigative journalism in search for the truth and serving democracy and the common good,” MCCV president Victor Borg said.
The MCCV’s award to Ms Caruana Galizia is a public recognition by the Maltese community in Melbourne of her “significant contribution to democracy and the rule of law” in Malta.