Chief executive of the National Book Council Mark Camilleri has announced an election will be held for the top post of the cultural body in a bid to halt a system where the leadership of cultural entities is appointed solely by the government.
In a statement published by the National Book Council, Camilleri said that he would be contesting the said election, which authors and publishers are invited to vote on, and hoped to serve a further three years in his post, which he has occupied since 2013.
With a mandate from the National Congress of Writers, Camilleri said he hoped to continue restoration works on a Valletta palazzo to be transformed into a centre for literacy and a bookshop, as well as to continue advocating for the use of the Mediterranean Conference Centre as the venue for the National Book Festival.
“In spite of this, the government and my superiors do not necessarily agree with this mandate. It could very well be true that there is fear that authors and publishers should have so much power in our economic and civil society,” Camilleri said.
Adding that the election would be open to all authors and publishers, Camilleri said that leadership of cultural entities should not be left to the whims of government.
“In the case that I am reconfirmed as CEO of the National Book Council, the government will have a bigger obligation to implement its legal mandate in accordance with the wishes of the Congress of Writers. If they don’t agree that I should retain this position, they have the right to choose someone else,” he said.
“I wholeheartedly believe that government cultural entities cannot be run by government appointees. It has to be artists and partners in the cultural industry that decide who the best person to lead the entity leading their sector should be.”
He called on the heads of other cultural entities to adopt the example and “build democratic structures within their entities and enable an election for their positions”.
In January, Camilleri complained that the National Book Festival had been sidelined by the Mediterranean Conference Centre in favour of performances by Cirque du Soleil, with the council being told it was unable to make full use of the premises.
“Only in Malta, it seems, does one find a government which takes the bizarre and absurd decision of prioritising a foreign artistic group over the local cultural industry,” the council had said.
Last year, Camilleri defied calls for his resignation after an online spat with one of Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers, who is accused of conceiving the plot to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
A call for his resignation by the Education Ministry was rescinded after he apologised for using “foul language”.