During the EP plenary session (23-26 October) in Strasbourg,, MEPs discuss media freedom and protection for journalists, following the brutal murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist noted for her work on the Panama papers and corruption. Statements by Matti MAASIKAS, Estonian Deputy Minister for EU Affairs, Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Esteban GONZÁLEZ PONS (EPP, ES), Gianni PITTELLA (S&D, IT), Monica MACOVEI (ECR, RO) and Sophia IN'T VELD (ALDE, NL).

Strasbourg

MAASIKAS, Matti (EE)

TIMMERMANS, Frans (NL, EC)

PITTELLA, Gianni (S&D, IT)

GONZÁLEZ PONS, Esteban (EPP, ES)

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

freedom of press and media (T)

MACOVEI, Monica (ECR, RO)

EU - Malta (T)

SIVICKAS, Gintautas (LT)

ANDERSEN, Bent Hindrup (EDD, DK)

Protection of journalists and the defence of media freedom in Malta; the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Matti MAASIKAS, Estonian Deputy Minister for EU Affairs, Attacks on the media representatives to silence their voice are unacceptable everywhere in the world. If they occur we have to act immediately and condemn the crime, find and punish the perpetrators and re-establish the confidence of our citizens in the functioning of our democratic institutions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, I can say that the European Commission very much agrees in insuring an independent and thorough investigation of the facts and bringing those responsible to justice must be the top priority for now. Prime Minister Muscat gave such an insurance to fellow leaders on Thursday and the eyes of Europe and the world are on Malta to insure that this is the case.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Esteban GONZ&#193;LEZ PONS (EPP, ES), They haven&rsquo;t killed judges, they haven&rsquo;t killed police officers or politicians, they killed one journalist and if the judges, police and politicians live happily while newspaper men and woman are murdered democracy is failing. The disappearance of Daphne Caruana is more than a tragic murder of a troublesome journalist, it is a message, it is a direct threat to all of us, we are not supposed to remain silent, it is threat to all those who free the exercise the professional journalism, it is an attack against the freedom of expression, because there could be no democracy without a free press.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Esteban GONZ&#193;LEZ PONS (EPP, ES), The murder of Daphne is a dark shadow that falls on our consciences proud Europeans. The European Union cannot remain silent any longer, it cannot remain silent of what is happening in Malta. Our silent is the victory for the murders of Daphne and a defeat for our democratic institutions. That is why my group called on the European Commission to insure that a fully independent inquiry is commissioned into this, we need to know who did this, why and who protects them and all these people should go to jail. And I call upon the European Commission to look into the situation of the rule of law in Malta because Daphne recalled to us in her final words &rdquo;the situation is desperate&rdquo; all of us including the Commission whether we did enough.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Gianni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT), A year ago we set up an inquiry into the Panama leaks and Daphne was involved in that. What it&rsquo;s finding is that we need to fight money laundering flows, we need to set up lists for tax heavens and make sure that we tackle these. These are all things the special committee asked to have done.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Monica MACOVEI (ECR, RO), Who is going to investigate the Prime Minster? Daphne was she killed because the made the position of the Prime Minister uncomfortable, now I think the Prime Minister and the whole Maltese government should resign.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), The first one to act is of course the Maltese government, they will have to investigate her murder and make sure that the murders don&rsquo;t get away with impunity but also those who wanted should not get away with impunity, because this was not just a murder tackling an individual person, she was exposing corruption and crime. And we should investigate this as well, because this is not mere Maltese problem. This is a European problem, we are talking about international network of corruption, crime, money laundering, hiding criminal money etc, etc, so I think there is a task here for the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), If one member state doesn&rsquo;t function in this respect, then the whole system fails. So it is in everybody&rsquo;s interest that we investigate, yes is that painful, but this is a political Union, we all have to make sure that these problems are eradicated and I think we owe it to Daphne. We cannot just make statements here we have to be courageous.