The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

T his is one of the most dangerous times for journalists to be writing in a decade, according to a report highlighted by an article in Time . The article states: Journalists around the world have faced a substantial increase in physical and verbal attacks compared to previous years. The report also noted that a decline in media freedom around the world … had been matched by an increase in authoritarian tendencies guided by strongman leaders. This is shocking, but it also does not come as much of a surprise. One doesn’t need to ask why it is shocking. It’s blatantly obvious. The thought that individuals might face threats and intimidation on a daily basis for writing is already awful enough. Then we remember Daphne Caruana Galizia, Jan Kuciak, Viktoria Marinova and Jamal Khashoggi, amongst so many others, and realise further how absolutely barbaric attacks on journalists can and do get. The verbal assaults become physical, and only grow worse as time passes. But the re...

We are now in the fourteenth month since the assassination of one of Malta’s prime investigative journalists, Daphne Caruana Galizia. Still, there is complete impunity for her murder with the mastermind still unknown. Silence is not always golden. In times like this, we all need to take a stand and defy the Orwellian tactics and propaganda. Margaret Atwood , in her prophetic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale , writes this: ‘All that is silenced will clamour to be heard’. And so it will. Even a simple, peaceful act of leaving a flower or candle on the protest memorial demanding justice for Daphne in Valletta is an act of protest. It shows that society is still angry and is still demanding answers. More than anything, an immediate public inquiry into Daphne's murder is needed, and you can help push for one. Amnesty Italia has a petition demanding it and you can be one of the thousands signing it globally. Besides this, you can attend the monthly vigil for Daphne outside the law cour...

This article is absolutely beautiful. Jamal Khashoggi’s daughters show a side to their father that hasn’t yet been spoken of. Illustration by Razan Jamal Khashoggi  (taken from The Washington Post ) Sometimes it’s so easy to forget that the murder of a journalist – or indeed, of any individual – has an impact on their loved ones that nobody can even begin to imagine. Their loved ones loved and knew the person as a human being with all of their idiosyncrasies, and knew their character as nobody else could have. Jamal Khashoggi was a ‘loving man with a big heart’. He loved history and teaching his daughters about it during their travels. He adored books, ‘fully absorbing every opinion’. Khashoggi’s daughters show that their father was not simply a journalist, but a human being who happened to be a journalist, as all true journalists are. An article like this keeps the memory of a murdered journalist alive because it fights the dehumanisation tactics used by their ki...