NEWS In a media release issued last Wednesday SBS announced that two hours of SBS Radio Maltese digital only programs, one at 12 pm Tuesdays and the other at 2 pm Thursdays on SBS Radio 3, will be discontinued from 6 August 2015. The Maltese programs on the analogue SBS Radio 2 schedule, one at 12 pm Fridays and the other at 2 pm on Saturdays, will continue as normal.
According to the SBS media release, this change will bring the SBS Radio Maltese program’s broadcast hours into line with allocations for languages of a similar size and need in Australia, as determined by the 2013 SBS Radio Schedule Review and 2011 Census data.
The media release further states that “During the 2013 SBS Radio Schedule Review, and following extensive community consultation, the Maltese language was allocated two programs on the analogue schedule, on SBS Radio 2, plus two additional programs on the digital SBS Radio 3 schedule. At the time, SBS indicated it was able to commit to the additional programs on SBS Radio 3 for a period of two years.”
In November 2012 SBS Radio revised its program schedule and decided to slash Maltese language programs from 9 hours per week to 2 hours per week without any prior consultation with the Maltese community.
After the publication of the revised SBS Radio schedule in November 2012, the Maltese community had come together in a show of unity to apply pressure on SBS to re-consider its decision. Representations to SBS came from all quarters and took the form of letters of support and emails from numerous members of federal and state parliaments, local councillors and Maltese associations, many posts left by unhappy Maltese community members on the SBS website and Facebook page, as well as letters and articles published in the Maltese newspaper in Australia, The Maltese Herald. A petition with over 3,000 signatures, organised by the Maltese Community Council of Victoria and supported by the Maltese communities in Australia, was sent to the then Minister responsible for radio and communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, and to the SBS Board.
After three-and-a-half months of persistent canvassing and negotiations led by Maltese community leaders in Melbourne and Sydney as well as Malta’s High Commissioner in Canberra at the time, H.E Mr Francis Tabone and the then Consul-General in Melbourne, Mr Charles Mifsud, SBS agreed by way of compromise that two one-hour Maltese radio programs would be broadcast commencing on 29 April 2013 in addition to the two which were originally included under the new schedule, giving a total of 4 one-hour programs per week.
SBS had also advised the Maltese community leaders at a meeting before making its related announcement in early 2013 that the additional two hours would be funded from within the existing radio budget. SBS also indicated that funding of the additional two hours on SBS 3 digital would be guaranteed only for two years (until the end of the 2014/15 financial year) and that the funding situation would be reviewed at the end of the two years.