Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Press Freedom

CARIBBEAN: Journalists Fear a “Looming Storm”

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Nov 8 2005 (IPS) - Caribbean journalists say they will closely monitor the position of the region’s governments at the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), scheduled to begin in Tunisia on Nov. 16.

Internet governance has emerged as a major theme of the WSIS gathering, although its original mandate is to ensure that poor countries receive the full benefits of information and communication technologies.

The WSIS is expected to draw 10,000 participants from U.N. agencies, governments, the private sector and civil society to discuss strategies to bridge the digital divide.

However, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), which met in Barbados last weekend, is concerned that regional governments do not use the forum as a means of developing strategies to muzzle the internet and the media.

“We know what Caribbean governments mean when they talk internet governance. They mean censorship, plain and simple,” said Wesley Gibbings, the outgoing president of the ACM. “We have to ensure we do not become unwitting allies in that effort by paying closer attention to what happens in Tunisia in two weeks’ time.”

“Let’s make sure we know exactly what the Caribbean plans to say in Tunis and whether we believe it is consistent with our belief that a free and open internet is good and not bad for us,” he said.

The ACM also issued a report titled “The Looming Storm”, which describes self-censorship and pressure from government officials as two of the most serious problems facing journalists in the region.

“It is instructive that institutions otherwise charged with development of Caribbean mass media, inclusive of the regional universities and media houses themselves, have not accepted the challenge to maintain the strict vigil necessary to ensure the spirit of a free press is always present,” said Gibbings, who coordinated the project.

The newly elected ACM president, Dale Enoch, warned that constitutional guarantees are not always honoured and that threats to press freedom exist “in just about every country in the region”.

“Some of those threats are subtle while others are blatant and dangerous. We need to recognise them and deal with them,” he said.

In the report, the Antigua and Barbuda Media Congress says that despite pledges by the Baldwin Spencer government to be transparent and open with the media, “government officials have on several occasions alluded to or made direct reference to a need to regulate the media”.

“The term ‘hate’ radio is often used to refer to media houses that may not be in the government favour. This ‘need to regulate’ has been voiced by the prime minister as recently as Aug. 18. Similar ideas have been expressed by the information minister in many a public forum,” the group said.

It added that despite some advances in press freedom, public officials are still able to “use their influence to push a political agenda either through the omission of certain stories or through the tainting of facts”.

The ACM report says this situation prevails in almost all of the Caribbean states.

President of the Suriname Association of Journalists Rachael van der Kooye notes that while press freedom issues are not as urgent as in the 1980s – when journalists were killed, and media houses destroyed and closed by the military regime – “the government is not always transparent and it takes a lot of digging to get public information”.

“Among our concerns is the belief that the government plans to introduce judicial provisions for ethical codes contrasted with the need for the protection of press freedom and the right to information and freedom of expression,” she said. “Another concern is media legislation. We still have ‘muzzle’ laws, which are occasionally used by politicians.”

In Grenada, the government’s indirect control of the broadcast media is linked to the manner in which licences are awarded, said the report.

“There is no independent board of directors that decides who gets a license and whose license is renewed, rather it is the minister who determines it. This influence of the minister impacts on the station’s coverage of events, more so, events that put the government in a negative light.”

The Media Workers Association of Grenada said that self-censorship has become almost the norm, since there is the “fear of offending the political directorate in the coverage of news”.

“Newscasts generally have become government public relations reporting as some journalists have found themselves having to take sides to secure their jobs,” the group reported.

The regional report examines not only the role of governments and the private sector bodies in their quest to control the media, but also provides a critical examination of the functions of the regional media.

“There is the ambivalence of respect for the practice of journalism against the view that in many instances commercial and political agendas exist. Self-censorship becomes a foil against the practice of good journalism and citizens are denied a view of reality necessarily to move themselves and their societies forward,” the report said.

“There are journalists in these pages who believe the deviant behaviour of young people owe much to media content, pointing to the need by our societies to explore far more open-minded approaches to the questions of alienation, discord and consequential violence,” Gibbings said.

“It is my guess, though, that the horrible decline of West Indian civilisation is much more due to the collapse of the institutions of public and private life that never grew in tandem with the challenges of modern existence. The crises abound everywhere. The storm looms,” he warned.