Malta politicians to miss rally honoring slain reporter 

However, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told the Labor party’s radio station a few hours before the event’s start time that he would not be attending because he knew the anti-corruption reporter’s family didn’t want him to be there.

“I know where I should be and where I should not be. I am not a hypocrite and I recognize the signs,” Muscat said, adding that he supported the rally’s goals of call for justice and national unity.

Nationalist leader Adrian Delia also has decided to skip the rally because he didn’t want to “stir controversy.”

“Today is not about me, but about the rule of law and democracy,” he said.

Muscat and Delia, while fierce political rivals, have another thing in common: Both brought libel lawsuits against Caruana Galizia. Delia withdrew his pending libel cases last week after her killing.

Caruana Galizia’s family has refused to endorse the government’s offer of a 1 million euro ($1.18 million) reward and full protection to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of her killer or killers.

Instead, the family, which includes a son who is an investigative journalist himself, has demanded that Muscat resign. In their quest for a serious and efficient investigation, Caruana Galizia’s husband and children also want Malta’s national police chief and attorney general replaced.

On Sunday morning, all seven national newspapers had their front pages black in Caruana Galizia’s memory. Printed in bold letters against the black backgrounds were the words: “The pen conquers fear.”

Just before her death, Caruana Galizia had posted on her closely followed blog, Running Commentary, that there are “crooks everywhere” in Malta, whose reputation as a tax haven in the European Union has attracted investment companies and money from abroad.

The journalist focused her reporting for years on investigating political corruption and scandals, and reported on Maltese mobsters and the island’s drug trafficking. She also wrote about Maltese links to the so-called Panama Papers leaks about offshore financial havens.