Daphne Caruana Galizia honoured at Reporters Memorial in Normandy

Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), unveiled the 2018 memorial stone at the War Reporters Memorial in Bayeux, in northern France, on Thursday.

Organised as part of the weeklong Bayeux-CalvadosNormandy Awards for War Correspondents, this 12th annual ceremony paid tribute to journalists who were killed in the past year.

The families of two of the reporters killed in the past year – Daphne Caruana Galizia of Malta and Gauri Lankesh of India – participated in the ceremony at RSF’s invitation.

Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of the sons of Daphné Caruana Galizia, and Corinne Vella, her sister, paid tribute to this wellknown Maltese journalist and blogger just days ahead of the first anniversary of her murder. She was killed as she left her home on 16 October 2017 by a bomb placed under her car. An anti-corruption specialist, she shed light on corruption cases implicating Maltese politicians, including cases linked to the Panama Papers.

Kavitha Lankesh, the sister of Gauri Lankesh, and Esha Lankesh, her niece, also spoke during the ceremony. Gunned down outside her home on 5 September 2017, Gauri Lankesh edited the tabloid newspaper Lankesh Patrike, in which she defended women’s rights, was outspoken in her condemnation of the caste system, and criticised Hindu nationalists and conservatives.

The many names inscribed on this year’s memorial stone include that of Fezi Shah Marai, a photographer working for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Afghanistan. He was killed on 30 April 2018 along with nine fellow-journalists in a double bombing in Kabul. Claimed by Islamic State, it left an overall toll of at least 25 dead. The head of AFP’s photo service, Marielle Eudes, paid tribute to him during the ceremony.

Malta is ranked 65th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index, India is ranked 138th and Afghanistan is ranked 118th.

The annual Bayeux-CalvadosNormandy Awards for War Correspondents, which are being held this year from 8 to 14 October, have been a major journalism event since 1994, with many French and international journalists attending its debates, photo exhibitions and conferences.

This year’s awards, in categories that include photography, TV, radio and print media, will be presented at an evening ceremony on Saturday, 13 October.