Editorial

As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations Din l-Art Helwa has introduced two annual awards to mark the occasion. The first took place a few days ago in the historic setting of Torri Mamo, in the limits of Marsascala, with the award for heritage journalism. The second comes up in two weeks' time with the award for architectural heritage.

The initiative on heritage journalism by Din l-Art Helwa is to be commended not simply because a journalist of The Times - George Cini - won the top award of the handsome silver medal trophy for 2005 but, more importantly, because the award is intrinsically a good thing for the press and media in Malta more generally. It sets the benchmark which the press here should be striving to achieve when writing about the country's cultural heritage.

As Martin Scicluna, the chairman of the panel of judges explained, the concept of establishing the heritage journalism award was to encourage the written press to focus on articles or writing campaigns underlining the vital contribution of Malta's built cultural heritage.

The judges were looking for articles that fostered the significance of the country's built heritage - aesthetically, historically, socially and economically - and its contribution to Malta's identity and quality of life and the need to safeguard it. The criteria for the award were drawn up based on the quality of the work published and the effectiveness in communicating the "spirit" of the heritage issues with a view to increasing public awareness.

In his remarks after presenting the prizes to the silver medallist and three diploma winners (one from l-orizzont and two individual contributors) President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici aptly underlined the fact that it was crucial for the press to help foster people's pride in the island's rich cultural heritage. As opinion formers, the press and the media in general had a vital role to play in educating public opinion about the need to cherish the cultural heritage.

A free press is one of the key safeguards of a successful parliamentary democracy. In the "information age" it has a responsibility both to inform and to educate. It is not just about profits - important though these are in any commercial enterprise - but it is also about the ability to exercise influence over news, information, public ideas, culture and arts, as well as political attitudes. Journalists/columnists like to think that they can, and sometimes do, set the agenda and determine the framework of public debate. In this respect they have "power over opinion".

This is why Din l-Art Helwa's award for heritage journalism is so important. It seeks to encourage better journalism on a subject so fundamental and beneficial to the nation's cultural identity and, frankly, its economic development.

In a country whose politicians have tended to pay lip service only to its cultural heritage, it calls on journalists, and the editors, of all the press - both independent and others - to write campaigning articles on the built cultural heritage and, in the process, to shape public opinion. By so doing (see, for example, the reports on The Times about the delays in restoring the church of St Catherine of Italy), it is hoped those who have it in their power to act will be prompted to do something positive about it.

Din l-Art Helwa has urged editors to encourage journalists to take up the cudgels on behalf of Malta's built cultural heritage and to submit entries for the award for heritage journalism, starting with 2006. The Times warmly echoes this sentiment.