Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1526409
11 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2024 MATTHEW FARRUGIA mfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt POSTS OF SENIOR MANAGER (PUBLIC RELATIONS) AT THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL The Office of the Attorney General is inviting applications for posts in the grade of Senior Manager to carry out information and promotional services. The selected candidates will be employed on a full-time term basis and will be required to work for a minimum of forty hours per week. Applicants must at least be in possession: a) in possession of the LL.D. or Master of Arts in Advocacy; or b) in possession of a recognised Master's qualification at MQF Level 7 or comparable qualification in Laws, Communications; or c) in possession of a recognised Bachelor's degree qualification at MQF Level 6 or comparable qualification in Communication plus three (3) years relevant working experience in a public relations/press, legal environment or in an administration position deemed relevant by the board. Letters of application, including a detailed CV, should be addressed to: The Administration Jobsplus Vacancy No 409782 Office of the Attorney General, 53, South Street, Valletta and should be submitted by not later than Friday 20 th September 2024. THE national broadcaster's executive chair, Mark Sam- mut, has stepped down follow- ing a weeks-long absence. Government sources told MaltaToday that no candi- dates had been found to re- place Sammut. Earlier reports that the post would be taken up by Film Commissioner Jo- hann Grech were denied. When asked for a comment, Grech said that his reported appointment was news to him, and that he is, "completely fo- cused on the film industry." Before the 2013 election, Sammut was known to be a close confidante to ex-finance minister and Nationalist lead- er contender John Dalli. Sammut will be remembered for removing Norma Saliba - now standing for the post of Labour Party president - from head of news and appointing PBS' CEO as the registered editor of PBS. The national broadcaster still has no offi- cial editor who runs the news- room. Under Sammut the station introduced two new stations TVMNews+ and TVMsports. During his time, PBS contin- ued to be plagued by criticism from the Nationalist Party for biased news reporting. PBS executive chair leaves post without successor THE government is proposing new rules that will make tobac- co companies responsible for the cost of disposing cigarette butts. Under the draft legal notice, cigarette companies will be held financially responsible for the environmental impact of their products, a move that aligns Mal- ta's regulations with the Europe- an Union's Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive. Cigarette butts are a major com- ponent of litter found in beach clean-ups, accounting for 22% of waste collected from Europe- an beaches. A survey conducted by the Environment Ministry in 2021 found that 11% of smokers admit to still throwing cigarette butts on the floor. Although cigarette filters look like cotton, 98% of cigarette filters are made of plastic fibers that are tightly packed together. Moreo- ver, cigarette butts are non-bio- degradable, meaning they won't organically break down from liv- ing organisms. Studies show that it may take up to ten years for a cigarette butt to decompose, apart from containing chemicals and microplastics which nega- tively impact marine life. The draft legal notice introduc- es a framework that will require producers of tobacco products with plastic filters to assume fi- nancial responsibility for the management of their waste. This legislation is designed to ensure that the costs associated with clean-up efforts, waste re- ceptacles, and public awareness campaigns are borne by the man- ufacturers of these products. To- bacco companies will be required to fund the waste management of their products through a Produc- er Responsibility Organisation (PRO). The PRO will fund waste man- agement initiatives including clean-ups, the provision of ad- equate waste receptacles, and address litter hot spots. Tobacco companies will also be responsi- ble for the subsequent transport and treatment of this waste. The law will also mandate pub- lic awareness initiatives and data reporting to monitor and as- sess the effectiveness of the new measures. And until a PRO is set up, it will be the Environment and Resources Authority to allocate the costs according to importers' market share. The new legal notice is in line with the Single Use Plastic Strat- egy approved four years ago, even if the deadline has been missed by a couple of years. The strategy had envisaged that by 2022, pro- ducers of tobacco had to finance the provision of ashtrays at all beaches including beach resorts. By 2023 Malta had to introduce schemes to ensure that tobacco companies are held responsible for waste management costs. Malta's long-term waste man- agement plan approved in 2021 even went one step further by proposing a smoking ban on sev- eral local beaches, with the aim of limiting the amount of cigarette butts disposed of improperly and littered on beaches, but this measure still has not been imple- mented. Importers to pay cost of tobacco litter – government proposal Government targets cigarette butts with public consultation on making cigarette importers responsible for the litter they produce