Culture Minister Malcolm Paul Agius Galea has refused to say that Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered for definite because of her journalistic work, insisting that people need to be “very careful” about reaching such a conclusion.The minister was questioned by Times of Malta journalists outside Parliament today as MPs returned for an urgent debate following the acquittal of Yorgen Fenech.Asked whether he believed journalists in Malta were less safe today than they were before the verdict, Agius Galea replied: “No, I don’t think so.”The journalist interviewing him pointed out that someone had been killed because they were a journalist.“But that’s what you’re saying,” Agius Galea responded.“In truth, these are things where one has to be very careful. That is why we need to be cautious.”The Culture Minister then drew an analogy involving the hypothetical murder of a doctor.“I could have a friend who is a doctor who gets killed, and people say that he was killed because he was a doctor, but I wouldn’t know exactly what happened and what didn’t happen,” he said.“Likewise, I don’t know exactly what happened and what didn’t happen, and in truth we have to be very careful.”Pressed directly on whether he believed Caruana Galizia was killed because of her journalistic work, Agius Galea once again stopped short of agreeing.“At this point in time, that is why caution is important,” he said, pointing towards Prime Minister Robert Abela’s own calls for caution and adding that “it is clear that matters have not yet been concluded”.His comments come despite the conclusions of the independent public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination.The 2021 inquiry concluded that the State bore responsibility for creating a culture of impunity which facilitated her assassination, and linked the danger she faced to her investigative work exposing corruption and the relationship between politicians and big business.During the same exchange, Agius Galea was also asked whether it was acceptable that nobody had been held responsible for ordering the journalist’s assassination after almost nine years.He said authorities now need to determine what happens next, while unequivocally condemning aggression and murder against anyone.The comments come just days after a jury acquitted Fenech of complicity in Caruana Galizia’s 2017 assassination and criminal association.What do you make of the Culture Minister’s comments?•