PBS cannot tell the difference between ‘inquiry’ and ‘inquest’

It appears as if new calls for independent public inquiries into the failings of the government and its authorities are being made every week, and rightly so.

If this state under Labour has developed excellence in anything, it is certainly non-enforcement – when it actually should seek to protect us from being killed on the road, on construction sites, in our homes, and now even in public hospitals.

An independent public inquiry launched by the government has to be conducted independently of state authorities and separately from any police investigation or magisterial inquiry.

While ‘inkjesta pubblika indipendenti’ translates as “independent public inquiry’, the English term ‘inquest’ commonly refers to investigations carried out by police or magistrates.

However, on the English version of its website, the government broadcaster has started using the term ‘public inquest‘ for what is called a ‘public inquiry’ across Malta’s mediascape.

Reporting on the Nationalist Party’s call for a public inquiry into the femicide of Nicolette Ghirxi, PBS came up with the even more bewildering creation “murder Inquest”.

What we can safely say is that Gwardamanġa Hill certainly doesn’t use Norma Saliba’s otherwise “shameful” online translator: the tool translated ‘inkjesta pubblika’ like a pro.

Anyway, one must be completely insane to upload entire documents for translation to a Maltese government website that is also somehow linked to the Office of the State Advocate.

What’s Facepalm bil-Malti?