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Digi B Network Ltd. is the sole digital radio platform operating in Malta. It applied to the Broadcasting Authority by means of two separate broadcasting licence applications, in June 2018 and in August 2018, to be permitted to carry two additional digital radio stations on its platform. Although this should have been a very straightforward procedure, the broadcasting regulator never got back to the platform operator with any decision, either within or beyond the statutory four-month period allowed by law; in the meantime, the platform operator was left unaware of the outcome of its applications....

On 25 January 2019, the Broadcasting Authority issued a new directive to radio broadcasters which is totally innovative in so far as it allows - for the very first time in Maltese broadcasting history - paid electoral advertisements on nationwide radio stations. However, the advertisements allowed are restricted to the announcement of information meetings to be held by prospective electoral candidates not to serve as “propaganda” for these candidates. The directive allows national radio stations to provide airtime to Maltese candidates standing for election to the European Parliament. National...

The Media and Defamation Act, Act No. XI of 2018, was passed on 24 April 2018. After it comes into force, it will replace the Press Act of 1974 (with regard to Legal Notice 150 of 2018 dated 8 May 2018, it already came into force on 14 May 2018). It must be noted that there were two Media and Defamation Bills presented to the House of Representatives during 2017. The first was Bill No 192, dated 24 February 2017. However, it provoked such a negative reaction that during the parliamentary session ending in May 2017, the Government agreed to overhaul it. In fact, it lapsed when Parliament was subsequently...

On 15 May 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a judgment regarding a peculiar application of the Maltese Cinema and Stage Regulations. A theatre group, Unifaun Theatre Productions, had been prevented from producing and performing the play Stitching, owing to a ban imposed by the Board for Film and Stage Classification (“the Board”). This interference with the theatre group’s right to freedom of expression was subsequently confirmed by the domestic courts, including the Constitutional Court of Malta. According to the Constitutional Court, the play contained several scenes...

Following the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of a snap election on 3 June 2017 by the Prime Minister of Malta one year prior to the scheduled end of the legislature, the Broadcasting Authority has launched a scheme of election broadcasts for the political parties participating in the general elections. The political parties concerned are the two main political parties represented in the House of Representatives during the last legislature, namely the Labour Party (the party in government) and the Nationalist Party (the party in opposition), and the smaller parties, these being the Green...