Search results : 80

A bill to amend the Broadcasting Act has been published in the Malta Government Gazette of Friday, 6 February 2009. The object of the Bill is to amend the Broadcasting Act to enable the Broadcasting Authority to license broadcasting content on satellite radio and television services. As the situation stands to date, the licensing of satellite radio and television broadcasting content has always been entrusted to the Government of Malta and, in particular, to the minister responsible for communications. This Bill proposes to entrust this function to the independent broadcasting regulator. In fact,...

The Malta Communications Authority (MCA), the Broadcasting Authority (BA) and the Ministry for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports and the Ministry for the Infrastructure, Transport and Communications have been discussing a policy document entitled “Making Digital Broadcasting Accessible to All: A Policy and Strategy for Digital Broadcasting Meeting General Interest Objectives”. The MCA led the discussions on the drafting of the document, with input from the BA and both ministries. Eventually the document was referred to the Cabinet for approval and, on 6 February 2009, released to the public. On...

The Broadcasting Authority had, in 2007, amended its Requirements as to Standards and Practice Applicable to Participation in Media Programmes of Vulnerable Persons so as to prohibit, inter alia, programmes aimed at establishing the identity of the natural parents of children, including adopted ones. Moreover, programmes or parts thereof relating to adoption have to be aired after the 9 p.m. watershed. The same applies to programme promotions concerning adoptions. Since then, the legislator has taken action to tighten the provisions of the Civil Code on adoption. Article 128A of the Civil Code...

Malta has begun the process of transposing the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) into Maltese Law. This process began on 20 November 2007, with a conference for stakeholders organised by the Malta Forum in Europe, in collaboration with TAIEX and the Media Desk of the Ministry for Tourism and Culture. The conference was entitled “The New Media Landscape: Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers”. On 3 September 2008, the Minister responsible for broadcasting appointed a Working Group on the AVMS Directive with the following terms of reference: - to carry out legal gap analysis in...

Following a consultation exercise carried out in summer 2008, the Broadcasting Authority has clarified the rules on surreptitious advertising and separation contained respectively in paragraphs 4 and 9 of the Third Schedule of the Broadcasting Act. These rules read as follows: “4. Advertising and teleshopping shall be readily distinguishable as such and kept quite separate from the other parts of the programme service by optical or acoustic means…” and “9. Surreptitious advertising shall be prohibited.” The clarifications state that when a person is invited during an informative slot on a radio...