# Malta: minister orders reporter's bank account frozen

Published 2026-09-23. Last reviewed 2026-09-22. 3 sources.

Status: in effect, as of 2026-09-22.

What we don't know: The sources reviewed do not state when or whether the freeze on her account was lifted before her death.

A month after journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia published reporting on members of Malta's government, the economy minister had her bank account frozen, one of dozens of legal actions she faced before she was killed in a car bombing in October 2017.[1][2][3]

- Country: [Malta](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/mt)
- Where: MT
- Level of government: National
- Tactic: Lawsuits against the press
- Stage: Pressure (ladder: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/lawsuits_against_press#stage-pressure)
- Ladder note: A minister ordered a reporter's bank account frozen a month after her story on his colleagues, one of dozens of suits filed against her before her killing; United States lawsuits against the press in the record have not frozen a journalist's assets.
- Head of government at the time: [Joseph Muscat](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/joseph-muscat)
- Issue of the day: Not stated in the sources reviewed.
- Outcome: Unknown. The source reviewed does not report the freeze being lifted before her 2017 killing; five people were later sentenced over the killing itself between 2022 and 2026, while defamation suits continued against her family.
- Era: The 2010s

## What happened

Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's best-known investigative journalist, published reporting in January 2017 that included compromising information about members of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's government. The following month, February 2017, Malta's economy minister had her bank account frozen, an administrative order that cut off her access to her own funds while she continued reporting. The freeze came during a period in which Caruana Galizia faced dozens of civil defamation suits from government officials and businesspeople she had reported on, filed in Malta and abroad, which press freedom groups later described as an attempt to exhaust her financially and legally rather than to win any single case. Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bombing outside her home on October 16, 2017, while several of the suits against her remained pending.[1][2][3]

Unresolved as of her killing in October 2017; legal actions against her family continued afterward.[3]

## What reason was given

Not stated in the sources reviewed.[1][2][3]

## What changed for reporting

The frozen account was one of many financial and legal pressures Caruana Galizia faced in the months before her killing, alongside dozens of separate lawsuits from officials and businesspeople named in her reporting.[1][2][3]

## Timeline

- 2017-02: Malta: minister orders reporter's bank account frozen

## Who acted

| Name | Role in this incident | Office at the time |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Joseph Muscat](https://thewaronnews.com/actors/joseph-muscat) | other | Prime Minister of Malta |

## Outlets and journalists

| Name | Kind | Relation |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Daphne Caruana Galizia](https://thewaronnews.com/journalists/daphne-caruana-galizia) | journalist | affected |

## Sources

1. Malta. https://rsf.org/en/country/malta (Reporters Without Borders).
2. The Minister for the Economy and his 'policy officer' have frozen my bank accounts. https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/02/minister-economy-policy-officer-frozen-bank-accounts-statement-issued-media/ (Daphne Caruana Galizia (primary, first-person statement), 2017-02).
3. Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination and the rule of law in Malta (PACE report). https://www.assembly.coe.int/LifeRay/JUR/Pdf/TextesProvisoires/2019/20190529-CaruanaGaliziaAssassination-EN.pdf (Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 2019-05-29).

## Claims cited

[1] The direct link between her reporting and the freeze. Quote: "The bank account of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist who published compromising information about the members of the government in January 2017, was frozen the following month at the Economy Minister's behest." Source: Reporters Without Borders. Malta. https://rsf.org/en/country/malta Claim: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/679, checked 2026-09-22.

[2] RSF's description of legal actions continuing against her family after her death. Quote: "Even the family members of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, murdered in 2017, have been subjected to posthumous defamation suits." Source: Reporters Without Borders. Malta. https://rsf.org/en/country/malta Claim: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/680, checked 2026-09-22.

[3] RSF's account of the criminal case's progress since her killing. Quote: "Between 2022 and 2026, five perpetrators were sentenced to long prison sentences." Source: Reporters Without Borders. Malta. https://rsf.org/en/country/malta Claim: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/681, checked 2026-09-22.

Source page: https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2017-malta-freezes-caruana-galizia-account. The War On News, CC BY 4.0.