This article is part of a series about mass protests. To read our other articles on this subject, click these links: part one | update (1)
Anti-corruption NGO Repubblika’s secretary general Frank Piscopo sent in a response to our queries on Wednesday. As you may know, I wasn’t in a position to report this immediately, so I am doing so now at the earliest possible moment.
If you recall, we sent questions to a total of 16 civil society groups to gauge public sentiment about mass protests. All of these groups were involved in the organisation of at least one mass protest earlier this year, which is why this website directed questions to each and every one of them.
Prior publication of this article, we had received three responses, which means that Repubblika’s response brings the total count up to four. While Fondazione Falcone and SOS Malta endorsed mass protests calling for the resignation of the prime minister and a snap election to preserve Malta’s shrivelling rule of law, student organisation JEF Malta did not endorse this call. You can read more about their responses by clicking the links at the top of the article.
In the organisation’s written response to these questions, Repubblika’s secretary-general argued that “protests are an important tool” in the fight against corruption, adding that it is a tool that the organisation has “resorted to in the past” and that it will resort to “in the future” but stopping just short of providing a timeline of when exactly this tool would be deployed.
However, the organisation did refer to the launch of a new manifesto in a few weeks’ time, which means announcements are to be expected around the time of the upcoming commemoration of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination next month.
“In a few weeks’ time we will be publishing a new Anti-Corruption Strategy and Manifesto where we will seek to renew the articulation of the reasons and the motives for a national anti-corruption alliance. No doubt this will require us to take to the streets as we will renew our commitment to use any legal means available to us to realise the change we aspire for the country,” Piscopo wrote.
The organisation also took the time to explain how else it is engaging in the fight against corruption in Malta, pointing out that in the meantime, monthly vigils in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia have been held every 16th of every month since the investigative journalist was murdered in Bidnija in October 2017.
In an effort to further preserve the assassinated journalist’s legacy and the cause of press freedom as a whole, Repubblika stated that it has supported “independent journalists in their effort to expose corruption because there is no better way of combating what some would hide than exposing it”, adding that it has done so by providing journalists with training resources, coordination with civil society, support in safe spaces, and funding for investigations.
One such project Repubblika is currently involved in is the S-Info project, a media-focused initiative which ropes in civil society organisations from Italy, Romania, Belgium, and Malta.
The organisation further spoke about its work to inform international bodies reporting on Malta’s floundering rule of law and its work to kick off prosecutions which are inadequately investigated by the police, the office of the attorney general, or the country’s institutions.
“We work with international partners to develop and advocate anti-corruption policies. We have, for example, promoted recommendations for reform to the new European Parliament together with our partners in the CHANCE network and argued for new measures such as a new Freedom of Information directive and new best-practice models on the funding of political activities,” the written response reads.
