PEN America Joins the Call for Justice for Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

NEW YORK — PEN America joined fellow PEN Centers and members around the world today in calling for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta’s preeminent investigative journalist, on the 6-month anniversary of her assassination. In an open letter published by PEN International, over 250 prominent writers and PEN members and staff called on the European Union to ensure an independent and effective investigation into her murder and expressed concern over Maltese authorities’ attacks on her memory and her family. Officials in Malta are pursuing 34 libel cases against Caruana Galizia, and the Prime Minister has initiated a libel case against her son, Matthew, himself a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Signatories to the letter included PEN America President Jennifer Egan and a host of other literary luminaries and prominent journalists: Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Yann Martel, Paul Muldoon, Ayad Akhtar, Masha Gessen, Molly Crabapple, Ian McEwan, and Khadija Ismayilova.

In support of the letter and the ongoing fight for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia, PEN America Senior Director of Free Expression Programs Summer Lopez issued the following statement:

“PEN America is proud to join this call for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia and urges the EU to uphold the principles of press freedom and to ensure the safety of journalists across Europe. Daphne’s unstinting courage in confronting corruption was legendary, and her assassination was an attempt to silence not just her but all those who seek the truth. Daphne would not want us to be silent. We call on the Maltese government to hold accountable those who ordered her assassination and to allow journalists in Malta to do their work without fear.”