Media's misuse of Maltese

The concern expressed by Alfred Brincat (The Sunday Times, June 20) about the misuse of the Maltese language in the broadcasting media is fully justified.

Mr Brincat concluded that "it is high time the Broadcasting Authority and the government did something about this" and commented that he did not "recall a single case of a station being fined for misuse and mistreatment of our national language and of using unsuitable and inept broadcasters".

The Broadcasting Authority, in fact, over the past few years did take such action on a number of occasions and indeed will continue to do so with increased frequency.

However, the authority, with the limited resources available to it, cannot reasonably be expected to maintain an ongoing, wide-ranging and meticulous examination of the use of the Maltese language on all the local broadcasting stations and, in any case, direct regulatory action (the imposition of fines on broadcasting stations) is unlikely, by itself, to solve the existing problem to any appreciable degree.

What could be more beneficial and effective is an ongoing programme of initiatives primarily intended to assist the broadcasting stations to upgrade their own capability to deal with this problem.

The Broadcasting Authority has already taken a number of initiatives in this direction. In 2008, it appointed a group of experts to advise it on how this problem could be addressed. The experts submitted their report in January 2009 with various recommendations which have been widely circulated within the industry.

A Code (Legal Notice) on 'The Correct Use of the Maltese Language on the Broadcasting Media' was published last March. This imposes a number of obligations on the Broadcasting Authority as well as on the broadcasting stations themselves, including a requirement for each station to have its own consultant, who should hold a recognised university degree in the Maltese language, or who is recognised by the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti as having sufficient knowledge and experience in the use of the Maltese language. Most of the broadcasting stations, in fact, have already appointed their consultant.

Your readers should rest assured that the Broadcasting Authority will continue to play its part in an effort to address this problem.

However, ultimately, it will be the willingness of the broadcasting stations to deal with this problem in a serious manner that should make a really visible improvement.