Press statements of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media

VIENNA, 1 March 2022- OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Teresa Ribeiro presented today a legal analysis of two Maltese draft laws on media. This analysis is written by an independent international media expert and concerns Malta’s Bill of the Act “to amend the Constitution and various other laws to strengthen the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy and to implement various measures for the protection of the media and of journalists” and of the Bill of the Act “to provide for the establishment of structures for the protection of democratic society, including the protection of journalists, other persons with a role in the media and in non-governmental organisations and persons in public life”.

VIENNA, 2 August 2021 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro welcomed the report published by the independent Public Inquiry Board into the assassination of renowned investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in 2017. The Public Inquiry, launched in December 2019 by the Maltese authorities, was conducted by a board consisting of a retired judge, a former Chief Justice and a serving judge. This board was tasked to determine whether any wrongful action or omission by, or within, any State entity in Malta facilitated or failed to prevent the death of the journalist.

VIENNA, 1 December 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today welcomed the bringing of criminal charges against businessman Yorgen Fenech for complicity in the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on 16 October 2017...

VALLETTA, 16 October 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, participated today in ceremonies commemorating the two-year anniversary of the brutal assassination of leading investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, during a visit to Malta. He met with the family of the journalist at the memorial, near the city of Bidnija, where she was killed.

GENEVA/STRASBOURG/VIENNA, 16 October 2019- "Government of Malta remains far behind in its obligation to ensure that investigations in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia are conducted in a prompt, effective, independent and impartial manner,” said today in a joint statement Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, and Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

VIENNA, 21 September 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, took note today of an important step taken by the Maltese authorities in launching a public inquiry into the death of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, stating that the inquiry must be fully independent in order to bring long overdue justice for her family, colleagues and the whole of Maltese society...

Vienna, 11 November 2018. Today, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir, called on all authorities to drop the request to the editor of the Times of Malta to disclose a source of information used in a report on a planned takeover of a building project, after the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) made such request to the daily newspaper.

VIENNA, 15 October 2018 – On the eve of the first anniversary of the horrific murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir recalled the need to better ensure the safety of every journalist in the OSCE region, and called on the Maltese authorities to ensure that all those involved in this killing face justice...

VIENNA, 15 May 2018 – Welcoming the entering into force of Malta’s new Media and Defamation Act, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM), Harlem Désir, called on the authorities to engage in further legal and policy reforms on civil defamation legislation...

VIENNA, 6 December 2017 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today welcomed that, following a series of arrests earlier this week, three people have now been charged with murder in the case of the car explosion that killed the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta on 16 October 2017.