Most people have had enough of the constant butchering and bastardisation of the Maltese language in our Press and on our media. Despite frequent and sometimes acrid criticism voiced by the public, our newspapers and media stations have been unable, or perhaps unwilling, to discipline themselves in this matter.
The prose used in hundreds of newspaper reports and articles each week, and the language used by scores of broadcasters are not just inelegant but go against established usage, sometimes verging on the laughable.
Despite the scepticism voiced by some broadcasters, the official decision to impose a code of correct use of the Maltese language in broadcasting as from this coming October is a good one. What must not happen is to let the legal notice promulgating the code become a dead letter as many other legal instruments in this country have become.
The code disposes among other things that each broadcasting station should employ a well-qualified consultant to keep an eye on language use, and also to include in each schedule of programmes at least one programme to "advance in a proactive manner the Maltese language." The first disposition, if applied in all seriousness, should be very useful. Although Akkademja tal-Malti has expressed serious doubts about its current commission to monitor news bulletins on three broadcasting stations, this need not mean that future monitoring cannot succeed.
Clearly it is impossible for a consultant to be there to check each bulletin before it goes out. This on-the-spot checking needs to be done by a station employee with very good Maltese language skills. What the consultant needs to do is to listen to the broadcasts, record the ones in which they detect poor usage and recommend the penalising and if needs be the transfer to other duties of those whose Maltese is consistently not up to scratch. The other disposition regarding programmes advancing the language is unlikely to be very effective or to be taken very seriously by the stations or the public they serve.
It is clear, however, that whether in broadcasting or in any other sphere the health of our language will ultimately depend on the willingness of individuals to use the language intelligently and indeed lovingly. Impositions from above are unlikely to work. The creation of a regulatory body with full-time employees such as Akkademja tal-Malti is recommending would be expensive and ultimately useless.
It makes sense, however, that bodies like the Akkademja or the Department of Maltese at our university should be commissioned from time to time to carry out short-term activities to inject sense and good techniques into the use of language in every sphere, but as usual the really important work has to be done in our schools. After our young people have left school there is little of a radical nature that can be done. Language is a dynamic thing exposed to a multitude of influences from all over the world, which no authority or legislation can do much to neutralise or even weaken.
The future of our language depends on the effectiveness of its teaching in our schools and the readiness of our employers, particularly those in communications, to be intolerant of language abuse by their staff.