I read with great interest Mgr Charles Vella’s article ‘Why not a socio-religious TV?’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, July 13).
My attention was particularly drawn to his final comment: “The time will come when our island will become more and more secularised. Then, quite rightly, our bishops will complain that the Church has no voice. With courage and vision let us establish a local socio-religious TV, like many other Catholic groups have in various dioceses.”
Go and Melita are refusing UTV access to their platform
My gut feeling is that if ever the Church in Malta decides to set up its own TV station, it will face great hurdles when it comes to broadcasting. I am writing from experience as we at UTV (a socio-religious TV station) have been kept on hold for over six years.
In September 2008, Joseph Scicluna, the then chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, approached me personally, as director of UTV, demanding that we cease transmissions until the mandatory upgrades were completed.
Despite the fact that UTV finalised the required upgrades, it is still engaged in an ongoing struggle to restart transmissions, and this is due to the broadcasting duopoly that exists in Malta.
No one can dare dream of offering transmissions unless they receive the blessing of either Go or Melita, both of whom are refusing UTV access to their respective platform. The previous government had created its own broadcasting platform, GIO (General Interest Objective), which was meant to provide a solution to the duopoly situation in our national broadcasting.
I urge the present government to consider Fondazzjoni U’s (a socio-religious foundation) request for space on GIO for UTV to restart transmission after a six-year suspension.
It seems that a number of valid people are currently focusing on the acute need for a socio-religious TV station. In view of this growing interest I hope that UTV will be allowed to restart its transmissions.
Despite the fact that UTV does not belong to the Church, we at Fondazzjoni U are more than willing to provide the Church with opportunities to make its voice heard.