The new draft law on stage and film classifications as unveiled earlier this week represents a small yet very notable step forward for freedom of expression and speech in Malta, and a giant leap forward for Maltese theatre.

Under the new draft rules, age classifications for performances at Malta’s theatres will no longer fall under the remit of a classification board but will, once they are transposed, leave the setting of age classifications to the discretion of the theatre producers themselves.

In effect, that also means that plays will no longer be subject to censorship or banning and, as such, the proposed changes to the law will bring Maltese theatre out of the virtual backwater that it had been consigned to languish in by the laws governing it.

The law will also be moved from the remit of the Code of Police Laws to the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts Act, where it undoubtedly belongs.

Debacles such as that of the controversial banning of Stitching will become a thing of the past, as will the international rebuke that Malta had suffered as a result of the banning of the internationally acclaimed play which, although the play may not be to everyone’s taste, was an outright atrocity.

The very fact that a classification board had wielded, and still technically does wield, the power to restrict plays it determines are not fit for Maltese public consumption - adult consumption - was not only patronising but a downright insult to any thinking person. We are not speaking here of children being allowed to view Stitching but, rather, fully-fledged adults. That state of affairs had made Malta a laughing stock across Europe when the news made headlines in Malta and consequently further afield.

As though addressing this very fact, the newly-promoted culture minister remarked when announcing the proposed amendments that, “our society is no less mature than others abroad.” He is, of course, quite right and it is high time that the state took its hands off artistic expression in all its forms.

The government was yesterday accused of launching the reform, with its curiously short three-week consultation period, as a pre-electoral gimmick. It is true the Nationalist Party is looking for ways to reach out to the liberal segment of its voter base following its unsuccessful stance against the introduction of divorce legislation to the country, which left many a Nationalist disillusioned with their party. Since then the party has also said it would seek to legislate for homosexual rights, and the censorship and banning of plays was another major sore point among liberals.

But, on the other hand, it is known that this process of revamping the age classification system has been underway for some time now, and as such it has not been a mere flash in the pan. We also have a newly-promoted culture minister who may very well be looking to make his mark as minister right away.

Whatever the case, Malta’s theatre productions will now see the chains of censorship and the threat of plays being banned being consigned to the annals of history where they belong.

But while the fact that theatre will in effect become self-governing in terms of age classifications is a huge step forward for theatre, more is undoubtedly needed as far as wider freedoms of expression and speech are concerned.

And here it is hoped that this week’s proposals will be the first step in a journey towards the full liberalisation of the arts, literature included, in Malta. That is because, as far as literature is concerned, the country is still lacking a definition of obscenity and pornography, a fact that was well and truly brought to the fore by the Realtà censorship case, in which a student magazine was banned from the university campus.

In fact, the country’s definition of what exactly constitutes obscenity and pornography was established 35 years ago by the pornography and obscenity regulations of 15 July 1975. An awful lot has changed since 1975 and it is high time that Malta moves with the times and brings its definition of obscenity and pornography in line with 2012 realities.

A parliamentary committee has been composed to thrash out this wide-ranging question, but work has reportedly been slow on the ground. If our artistic community is to flourish as it deserves, let us follow this week’s positive proposals with like-minded proposals for literature.