The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation awarded the Citizen’s Award of the European Parliament for Malta
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The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation was awarded the Citizen’s Award for Malta of this year’s European Parliament in a ceremony at Dar l’Evropa on Friday.
The award goes to projects organized by people or organizations that encourage mutual understanding and closer integration between people in the EU, cross-border cooperation that builds a stronger European spirit, and the promotion of European values and fundamental rights .
The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola said in a video message: “Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed because she was not afraid to expose corruption. We want those responsible for this criminal act, those who allowed all this to be carried out, and those who tried to cover it up, to face justice.”
Metsola stressed the need to have European and national systems so that what happened to Daphne does not happen again, in Malta or anywhere else. “I cannot think of a more meritorious cause than this to receive the European Citizen’s Award: the citizenship of values, of law, of the search for truth – values that give identity.”
MEP David Casa was present for the ceremony, who nominated this year’s winners. He said that the work of the Foundation “has led to important victories for human rights, the protection of journalists, and access to information”.
The Foundation, added Casa, “showed its commitment to democracy and the rule of law in its fight for a public inquiry, in its efforts to build capacity among activists and journalists, and in the initiatives l – all its other public interest since that time.”
Matthew Caruana Galizia, son of the assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and the director of the Foundation, paid tribute to all the supporters of the family’s work when he received the award.
“We will get justice for my mother and her investigations thanks to the efforts of thousands of people and organizations who protest, support this campaign and take action. We accept this award on behalf of all of you,” he said.
He was speaking shortly after the verdict of the trial in which the two men accused of killing Caruana Galizia admitted the crime and were sentenced to 40 years in prison.
“It really should have been my mother who received this award. What we achieved will never come close to what my mother achieved in her lifetime. She really changed our country for the better; her whole life shows this, not just her death. I am very proud of what we managed to do; it shows what a small group of highly motivated people can do with the few resources they have,” added Caruana Galizia.
Today’s Citizen’s Award ceremony in Malta will be followed by an EU-wide ceremony in Brussels for the citizens recognized with this award in the different Member States on 8 November in the European Parliament.
Other recent winners of this award in Malta include Id-Dar tal-Providenza, the Malta Lockdown Festival, and Bjorn Formosa of ALS Malta.