It is our responsibility to ensure that the Maltese language is well integrated and used within the digital sphere, including on digital platforms and through digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa, PN MEP Francis Zammit Dimech has said.

"By doing so, we will ensure that our national language remains relevant in an ever-changing digital world. "

MEP Francis Zammit Dimech made these remarks when addressing the annual Translating Europe Workshop entitled: "Digital prospects: support for the online presence of Maltese".

Zammit Dimech said the Maltese language faces the risk of "digital extinction" due to the lack of technology support. Reiterating the need for the Maltese language to be supported on digital platforms and applications, Zammit Dimech said he had tabled a series of amendments on a report addressing challenges faced by languages in the digital age to tackle such a problem.

 "Maltese language is part of our national identity, which makes us proud of who we are. That is why I believe that it is important to facilitate the teaching and learning of Maltese language, which we use in our daily lives as well as on digital media" Zammit Dimech added.

Referring to recent news, Zammit Dimech expressed concern that many young people are no longer able to speak and write in Maltese and English and some of them are not doing well at all in school because they do not speak or write either language correctly. "Poor learning skills are concerning because if young people are not able to speak languages well, they will not be able to enter the job market. It is only through continuous efforts of teaching Maltese language to younger generations that we will be able to keep our language alive and pass it on to the generations to come. Maltese language is just as important to building human connections offline, as it is online."

Zammit Dimech went on to say that new digital media provide the opportunity to promote the use of Maltese language online to reach as many people across the world as possible and to diffuse the Maltese language. "We must all work together to make sure that other digital services will be introduced in the Maltese language" he added.

During his address, Zammit Dimech also referred to efforts he made to include Malta in the YouTube Partnership Programme. "The launch of the YouTube webpage for Malta is one of the main achievements for this year that will help not only to promote the content of Maltese YouTube users, content creators and users while compensating them financially for the content they generate online, but it will moreover expand the opportunities to produce online content in Maltese language."