Shadow minister Therese Comodini Cachia warned on Thursday that Malta risks losing talent in the cultural sector because of the government’s failure to provide adequate support to a sector ravaged by COVID-19.

She also made proposals of how the government could help the media and ensure that this vital sector for democracy did not wilt.

Comodini Cachia was speaking during the budget debate in parliament.

She said the government lacked a vision for the cultural sector and the few ideas around were haphazard. There was no correlation between funding and cultural initiatives.    

The COVID-19 measures had caused huge difficulties for the cultural sector. It was heartening to witness the determination, commitment and innovative efforts of the operators to keep going as best they could. But as the problems became deeper, the country risked losing its talent pool as artistes, photographers, producers, and many others, who had not found government financial support, sought jobs elsewhere.

Comodini Cachia said the new cultural policy, which had been completed, should have been published before the budget so that the budget should then have matched the various initiatives. 
 
Giving a list of what needs to be done for the cultural sector, she said the sector needs strong leadership, representative policies, an action plan to tackle the impact of COVID-19, funds to support research and innovation, the creation of cross-disciplinary activities such as those between creativity and science, the creation of creativity and innovation hubs, investment in productions and funding for new distribution channels once cultural activities could not be presented in the traditional ways.   

Supporting the media

There was also a need to help the traditional media, a major pillar of democracy which sought and transmitted the truth which the government itself often sought to hide. 

The revenue streams of media houses were impacted by the onset of social media, and matters got worse as the economy slowed with the onset of COVID-19.

Investigative journalism, which cost money, was key for a functioning democracy and it would be a sad day for society if this could no longer be carried out because of financial straits, Comodini Cachia said. 

She said the current threshold of funds to traditional media houses should be retained, but it should be topped up with supplementary funds based on the number of staff.

The government should also make available training grants for journalists and funds for particular projects such as podcasts and web-based platforms of the traditional media.

Funds could also be made available for projects or video productions which distributed cultural and educational content or material about vulnerable communities.

She also called for media literacy training in schools and the setting up of an inter-newsroom fact-checking team. 

Local councils stripped of the powers to act

Also taking part in the debate from the opposition benches was the shadow minister for local councils, Karl Gouder.

Among other points, Gouder said the funding mechanism for local councils still needed to be fine-tuned.

He also hit out at the government for having shifted responsibility for roads within localities from the local councils to Infrastructure Malta.

Infrastructure Malta had turned out to be a monster with little to no contact with the councils, he said. 

The government had promised to rebuild all of Malta’s roads within seven years he said, but half way through, only a tiny number of roads within localities had been redone. More would have been done had responsibility been kept by the councils, and adequate funds handed to them.

But this was the government bent on centralising decision-making power rather than subsidiarity. The same had happened with regard to local law enforcement, with the government having created yet another monster, LESA.

As a result, the councils were rendered toothless. Councillors could not even do anything about a crane blocking one of their roads and they had to plead to LESA to possibly send a warden. And many times, this did not happen, and councillors were blamed by many people.

Gouder welcomed the fact that community policing – first introduced by the PN – had started being introduced. His appeal, he said, was for community policing to be extended to as many localities as possible. 

Concluding, he said it was a shame that the government had dragged its feet about ensuring that councils could hold their meetings online, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He appealed to the government to empower the councils, give them the resources they needed, and help them more efficient in their relations with the people.

Minister ready to discuss proposals with opposition

Culture Minister Jose’ Herrera in his reply said he was happy to invite Comodini Cachia to his office to discuss the proposals she had made, notably about the media.

The minister spoke about the ministry’s priorities and said that top of the list was the need to support the people who constituted the culture sector through direct stimulus for the professionals and others. Funds would also be used for the purpose under various local and EU schemes. It would also be made easier for operators to access funding schemes. 

The minister also spoke on his ministry’s activities and the range of restoration works underway. 

He also said the ministry was working on a plan and legislation to support and protect the Maltese language.

He also confirmed that the Culture Policy will be published in the next few weeks, with almost 200 new proposals for the sector. 

Need for body responsible for the bastions

Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield has called for the setting up of a national body to be responsible for the upkeep of the bastions. 

Bedingfield focused on rehabilitation works being carried out in Cottonera and Zabbar, pointing out, among other things, to restoration works on the Cottonera and Sta margerita Lines.

Workers were also in hand or planned for Notre Dame and other gates, churches, windmills and street statues. 

Works would also be taken in hand on the underground chapel of the Nativity in Cospicua, one of Malta’s oldest chapels. 

Bedingfield said one of his dreams was also to have a museum on the history of Cottonera.