She wouldn't name them – Malta and Slovakia – but European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourová said countries where journalists have been murdered must offer more protections, including against SLAPP suits aimed at silencing them.

A partially-blind hitman who confessed to killing Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October, 2017 with a car bomb was given a reduced 15-year sentence in a case that still hasn't seen the prosecution of those who ordered it.

Malta is moving to strengthen protection for those who report wrongdoing. The Whistleblower’s Act is set to be revised by the end of the year to comply with the European Union Whistleblowing Directive.

A former anti-money laundering investigator on Malta, Jonathan Ferris, who says he has knowledge of massive wrongdoing, will sue to get whistleblower protection he said was deliberately blocked by the government with a scandal reaching Prime Minister's Joseph Muscat's office, The Times of Malta said.

In July 2013 Malta’s Parliament passed the Protection of the Whistleblower Act. This Act, which took effect in September 2013, provides legal protections for public and private sector employees.