Station told how to spend public service obligation money

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture has instructed Public Broadcasting Services as to how the Lm500,000 contribution for public broadcasting under the Extended Public Service Obligation (EPSO) should be spent.

The government said the instructions were issued to help PBS execute its mission as a public broadcaster in the best way possible.

The aim of the directives, which were drawn up following consultation with the parties concerned, is to improve the quality of public broadcasting, the government said.

Among others, the directives see to the safeguarding of the national language. Scripts and the Maltese language should follow the guidelines issued by the Language Commission and the Akkademja tal-Malti.

According to the directives, foreign programmes that are translated into Maltese are to be encouraged.

Money derived from the EPSO should not be spent on programme repeats on TVM, according to the directives.

The directives also call for two evenings of drama and a programme on the history of Malta.