The Maltese media landscape

The European Journalism Centre (EJC) aims 'to promote high quality journalism through professional training, particularly in a European context'. In this history and overview of the Maltese media landscape (needs updating) written for EJC, Joe Borg says that "the development of the Maltese mediascape is marked by five characteristics: the importance of the institutions, the fall and rise of public service media especially radio, the bilingual colonial heritage of the country, the David and Goliath syndrome and the giving of a new dimension to Malta's oral culture". This piece deals with Malta's bilingual culture as reflected in the media:

Malta was a British colony for over 160 years until it achieved independence in 1964. One of the most important remnants of this colonial period is Malta's bilingualism. While the national language of the Maltese Islands is Maltese - a synthesis of Semitic and European languages - the official languages are two: English and Maltese. This bilingualism is reflected in the media. The print media is numerically split into two equal parts. There are two dailies published in English and two Maltese ones. There are three Sunday papers in Maltese and three published in English. There are two Maltese weeklies and two English ones.

On the other hand the Maltese language dominates the audio and audiovisual media. Maltese is the main language used by radio stations, though there are four stations that can be considered as bilingual stations. The vast majority of the music played is English or Italian. It is calculated that only 15% of productions on Maltese radio stations are foreign productions (NSO Press Release 74/2001).

Maltese to day is also the dominant language in television production. This was not always the case. In 1994 (before the introduction of pluralism) only 43% of programmes on TVM were local productions. The rest was made of English films, serials, comedies, documentaries etc (Broadcasting Authority, 1994). To day 85% of the production on Maltese TV stations is of Maltese origin (NSO Press Release 74/2001).

On the other hand English is by far the most dominant language used in Maltese websites. A recent study conducted by Maltalinks Search Engine found that only 0.56% of Maltese websites are written in Maltese while 98.7% are written in English ( Retrieved on December 19, 2002 from www.maltalinks.com ). For the purpose of this study a Maltese website was defined as a website containing information about Malta or one that was created by Maltese persons. Two hundred thousand such websites were examined...

A bilingual mindset - Charles Flores