Now that the Bill amending the censorship law had been approved by Parliament, measures set out under the national policy for culture would be put into practice – a clear indication that the Government was in favour of artistic freedom of expression.

Censorship will no longer be the rule but producers will rate their own work

Winding up the debate in second reading on Tuesday, Culture Minister Mario de Marco said artists and producers had long communicated their disappointment at the State classification system. As a result both political parties had decided to react.

Now that Valletta had been chosen as the City of Culture for 2018 much needed to be done. The city would undergo an infrastructural change and investment was of the essence. He augured that both sides would in future manage to work efficiently and avoid pointless squabbles. Investment in human resources was more important and the artistic community should be strengthened.

Moreover, the Maltese culture and the creative industry needed to be strengthened, the Minister said. The sector was already contributing four per cent to Malta’s GDP and employing around 8,000 people.

However, the Government should try to give more aid to those who performed and produced art without any intent to profit. He said that the right way to help these artists was not through subsidies; better means had to be found.

Dr de Marco said that funds were put into place especially to help artists develop their skills and productions. But the creation of funds was just the beginning. His ministry did not take part in the distribution of funds but the whole process was guided by the criteria set out by the Malta Council for Arts and Culture.

The classification board would now fall under the aegis of his ministry and preventive censorship would no longer be the rule but a new system of auto-classification, where producers rated their own work, would be in place. The audience would be informed beforehand about potential controversial incidents in the production.

Dr de Marco called for sensibility and augured that no producers would tempt to cross red lines – such as child abuse and hate crimes – just to shock the audience. Responsibility must prevail.

Turing to Alfred Sant’s comments on the artistic freedoms of authors (see next page), Dr de Marco said he was pleased that the Bill was a stepping stone for more changes in the legislation. It was true that the artistic freedom of the literature writer needed to be delved into and comments such as that of Dr Sant, “who had brilliantly contributed to literature”, were much respected and appreciated, he said.

Concluding, the Minister called for a committee to help artists with legal cases and also for a comprehensive list of uniform guidelines to be issued to the Attorney General, the police and the artists themselves to avoid unnecessary incidents.