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Daphne Caruana Galizia, described by the Times of Malta as the country’s “most controversial journalist,” was killed on October 16 in a car explosion near her home in Bidnija, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed.

Caruana Galizia spent her career working with various Maltese news outlets but was best known for her personal blog, in which she railed against corruption among the country’s political elite. In 2016, she broke a story related to the Panama Papers, tying the prime minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, and then Minister for Energy and Health Konrad Mizzi to offshore shell companies, sparking a political crisis.

Her last blog post was published just minutes before the blast, and discussed the court appearances that morning of Schembri and former opposition leader Simon Busuttil. Schembri had brought a libel case against Busuttil related to alleged accusations of corruption during a rally speech Busuttil gave in 2016. In the post, Caruana Galizia described Schembri as a “crook.”

Following her death, Busuttil tweeted: “The rule of law has collapsed. Our democracy is at stake.”

Opposition leader Adrian Delia, who had also come under criticism by Caruana Galizia, said: “This is the collapse of democracy and freedom of expression.”

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat described the bombing as a “spiteful attack on a citizen and freedom of expression,” and vowed to bring those responsible to justice. Credit: YouTube/Charles Sammut via Storyful