A news item carried by this newspaper last Saturday is of concern. It was reported that the Broadcasting Au-thority has been advised to “go slow”, since two of its members – the two nominated by the Labour Party – have resigned and not been replaced.

Reno Borg resigned to become the financial services arbiter, and Rose Sciberras stepped down for health reasons. Surely two weeks is a long enough time for the Prime Minister to be able to substitute them.

Dr Borg became Malta’s first arbiter for financial services and he was sworn in on May 19 after tendering his resignation from the Broadcasting Authority. This is an office that was established in terms of Act XVI of 2016 and is accountable to the Finance Minister. Moreover, the office is subject to the Financial Administration and Audit Act.

This is an important new public office set up with all the right intentions. Article 118 (4) of the Constitution establishes that: “A member of the Broadcasting Authority shall not, within a period of three years commencing with the day on which he last held office or acted as a member, be eligible for appointment to or to act in any public office.”

The news about the Broadcasting Authority ‘going slow’ is not the only news that should worry any observer of the media

While article 124 (3) (iii) excludes from the definition of ‘public service’ a member “of any council, board, panel, committee or other similar body established by or under any law”, it should be observed that Borg, as the newly appointed arbiter for financial services, does not form part of the board of management and administration set up in terms of that law but part of the Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services.

Is such an office included in the definition of “other similar body” (that is similar to ‘board’ although the person in question does not form part of it – because the office includes the board and the arbiter) in terms of the Constitution?

At best, the issue is debatable, and one would have expected the government to be more prudent as well as respectful towards our Constitution, not least because if the appointment in question is ever deemed to be in violation of our Constitution, no matter how well intentioned the person appointed may be, we could end up with a situation where all his deliberations and pronouncements risk being declared null and void.

Be that as it may, the government ought to be respectful towards the Constitution by now proceeding with urgency to appoint the missing members on the Broadcasting Authority.

Without minimising in any way this duty pertaining to the government, and really, in a functioning democracy, there should not be any need for reminders, it should be observed that in terms of article 121 (2) and (5) of the Constitution and article 8 (2) of the Broadcasting Act, the Broadcasting Authority may act notwithstanding any vacancy among its members.

Meetings of the authority may be called by the chairman, either of his own initiative or at the request of any two of its members, and, as long as half of the members will be present for the meeting, there will be the required quorum.

Our Court of Appeal has had occasion in the past to determine that even failure to convene a meeting to consider complaints would of itself already constitute a dereliction of duty and cannot be allowed.

The news about the Broadcasting Authority “going slow” is not the only news that should worry any observer of the media in Malta from the point of view of safeguarding freedom of expression.

Threats from the Prime Minister’s chief of staff of proceeding legally (for recovery of commercial debts) against the Allied Group or Media.link, owned by the Nationalist Party, are condemnable without reservation.

In the case of the Nationalist Party, the public responded by donating to the party all that was required and more.

The response was clear: we shall not be intimidated. The same applies for the independent media.

The words of Martin Luther King Jr from his book Strength to Love remain inspiring: “Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.”

Francis Zammit Dimech is a Nationalist MP