Media organisations still face significant State obstacles when dealing with sexual health issues, a group of media professionals told a training seminar yesterday.
Addressing the seminar on media and sexual health, local television producer Sandro Kitcher said he was often faced with difficulties when attempting to discuss “delicate sexual issues” on programmes produced by his production company.
“The authorities need to wake up and realise we are living in 2013. We can’t decide to scrap a programme just because children might see it,” he said.
Television and radio programmes are governed by the Malta Broadcasting Authority, which ensures that all programmes fall in line with regulations related to content and showing times.
Newspapers do not fall under the authority’s jurisdiction.
Broadcasting Authority CEO Pierre Cassar expressed a different concern, insisting that more comprehensive seminars on how to deal with these issues in the media were needed to ensure suitable content.
“I receive several calls from media houses asking how to deal with these issues. It’s time they are properly informed,” Mr Cassar said.
The training seminar, held at the Intercontinental Hotel, formed part of the Health Ministry’s National Health Strategy and was aimed at providing media organisations with information on how to deal with “sensitive topics”.
The seminar followed comments made by Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia last April. Dr Farrugia had announced he would be embarking on projects to address the nation’s perceptions of sexual health.
Addressing the seminar, Dr Farrugia described mainstream media as the prime movers in spreading a holistic message on sexual health.
“You can help us inform the public correctly through spreading a consistent message,” Dr Farrugia said.
Broadcasting Authority chairman Anthony Tabone said he was committed to monitoring the local and international situation to provide a healthy balance on local broadcasting.
Mr Tabone later lambasted local media houses for not attending the seminar, insisting there was no excuse for not forming part of the collective learning experience.
“There are barely any media houses here. How can we expect to improve the situation like this?” he asked.
‘Ghetto sex dance’
Health Promotion Director Charmaine Gauci’s description of a raunchy MTV performance raised eyebrows at the sexual health training seminar yesterday.
Dr Gauci described dancing by singer/actress Miley Cyrus at the recent MTV music awards as “a ghetto sex dance”. The health promotion director was explaining the readily available nature of inappropriate material on foreign media.
A slide in her presentation also described the young performer, previously the star of children’s television show Hannah Montana, as “a gyrating, tongue wagging, latex bikini-wearing seductress”.
In her performance Cyrus is seen “twerking”. The dance, believed to have originated from the 1990s New Orleans bounce dance culture, involves dancers shaking their hips back and forth in a suggestive manner. Earlier this month the term was added to the Oxford Dictionary.