A Barbados media lesson in the making?

Nov 23, 2013 Editorial

The makings of a trans-Caribbean feud have broken out, mainly between Jamaica and Barbados over issues of media ethics and politics.
During the past few days a Barbados Government Minister, Donville Inniss, and the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper have been trading words over whether current prosecution of newspaper executives in Barbados is purely a question of the publication’s poor taste, or whether there are political ramifications behind the matter that is now in the Magistrate’s court.
Since Barbados’ leading daily newspaper, Nation, published what some regard as a risqué report and photograph on Bajan pupils having sex in a classroom there was a public uproar with arguments for and against its publication, leading to that company’s publisher, Editor-in-Chief, and one news editor being slapped with charges last week.
The Gleaner, a leading newspaper in Jamaica, stepped in Sunday by endorsing the Barbados Protection of Children Act, under which charges were laid against the Nation’s trio, but went on to ponder whether there were behind the scene political machinations.
“We hope that there are no political undertones to this matter, and that it does not imply an attempt to rein in The Nation’s feisty independence,” that Jamaican paper stated in its editorial.
Inniss responded by telling that Caribbean landmark newspaper to “mind your own business and look at the rot going on in Jamaica”.
Apparently intent on not taking the last lick, the Gleaner yesterday again had some words on the issue, re-iterating its position that the disputed Nation report addressed a matter of public interest.
That granddaddy of Caribbean newspapers went on to say, “We continue to believe that Barbados has been a leader in the English-speaking Caribbean in liberalising its laws relating to defamation, lessening, it appeared then, the threat to journalists going about their jobs of informing the public”.
It continued, “In that context, we are surprised that criminal action could be brought against journalists in this fashion, albeit not via the Defamation Act. We fear that the potential of five-year jail terms, which could be the fate of The Nation’s trio, could have a chilling effect on the press in Barbados”.
The Gleaner’s observation should be of note to Guyana media houses because, like many journalistic establishments here, the Nation has been a thorn in the side of the Barbados government through endless articles pointing to mistakes or examples of poor governance.
Among the public views of those siding with the Nation, is that government was long awaiting an opportunity to get back at that newspaper, and one was provided through the October 26, back page publication of children engaged in sex.
In summary they are saying that, as a media house, if you are going to expose government, don’t make mistakes, or do anything that can be made out as a step on the wrong side of the law, even marginally.
The three Nation employees are to return to court in March of next year for a hearing on the matter, and should convictions be handed down, that ‘chilling effect on the press’ could spread beyond the shores of Barbados and shroud Guyana’s media also.
The government in Guyana has never moved so far to silence the media. In fact, the President has repeatedly said that his government would jealously guard freedom of the press. At least one media house in Guyana, a television station, had published two children in a compromising position in a classroom a few years ago. There was not even a mutter of criticism because the spectacle was more of a talking point countrywide than something to be criticized.
Today, the government is more likely to be critical of those media houses that criticise its every action that the very government considers important for national development. Staunch critic, Freddie Kissoon, is before the courts on a libel suit that seems to be going nowhere. Adam Harris was on two occasions cited for contempt and there are the numerous libel suits brought by the friends of the government against the private media.
Suffice it to say that at no time was there the possibility of so lengthy a jail term that faces the Barbados Nation.

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