MEDIA: Caribbean Ponders Mixed Record on World Press Freedom Day

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, May 3 2002 (IPS) - Caribbean countries observed World Press Freedom Day without much fanfare on Friday, choosing to reflect on their mixed record of achievement in pursuit of the ideal of a free press.

“Between the imposition of rigid controls in some countries and moves to liberalise the mass media environment in others, those with an interest in fostering the promotion of greater freedom do not confront a uniform set of arrangements for the proper functioning of the free press,” said Wesley Gibbings, president of the recently formed Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM).

Gibbings said he hoped the six-month-old ACM would offer “the best opportunity yet to convert the aspirations of media professionals into a programme of action designed to promote professional performance and ethical behaviour, lift standards and defend the free press”.

Most of the region’s premier national newspapers had little or no coverage of the event, even as regional media practitioners, journalists, scholars and students were preparing to travel to Antigua for the 5th annual Caribbean Media Conference later this month.

The region’s journalist organisations have expressed concern that only four Caribbean states have so far endorsed the 1994 Declaration of Chapultepec, which says in part that “a free society can thrive only through free expression and the exchange of ideas”.

The Declaration also promotes the search for and dissemination of information, the ability to investigate and question, to propound and react, to agree and disagree, to converse and confront, and to publish and broadcast.

“Only by exercising these principles will it be possible to guarantee individuals and groups their right to receive impartial and timely information. We therefore vehemently reject assertions which would define freedom and progress, freedom and order, freedom and stability, freedom and justice, freedom and the ability to govern as mutually exclusive values,” says the Declaration, signed by countries such as the United States.

Belize, the Bahamas, Grenada and Jamaica are the only Caribbean states that have signed the Declaration.

The failure of the rest of the region to endorse the Declaration “is a strong indication of the fact that a commitment to meet these objectives does not readily exist in the corridors of political power in the region”, Gibbings said in a statement on Friday.

“But we do not for a moment believe the mere endorsement of this statement of principles indicates any particular obligation to ensure that the regulatory framework guiding the work of the media is not prohibitive and punitive,” he added.

ACM’s views on the Declaration found favour with the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, which called upon the new Patrick Manning administration to sign the Declaration “signalling its commitment to further enhancing the environment for a free press in the country”.

Former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday, had indicated that his administration would not sign the accord, because the provision in the country’s constitution for a free press was already an adequate safeguard.

The media profession received a major boost with the decision by the University of the West Indies (UWI) to bestow honorary doctorates on two of the region’s most prominent journalists later this year.

Veteran Trinidad and Tobago journalist George John, who has worked throughout the region and is also a member of the Commonwealth Journalist Association human rights group, and Guyana-born journalist Rickey Singh will be honoured for their contribution to regional development and journalism.

Singh, founding president of the now defunct Caribbean Association of Caribbean States (CAMWORK) had been at loggerheads with leaders of several Caribbean countries, including Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, where he now resides.

Gibbings said the two journalists had been in the forefront of efforts for a “better world for the Caribbean media worker” and that “in them, we find the inspiration we all need to persevere in the work of building the profession of journalism”.

“We dedicate our observance of today’s special occasion to these two giants of Caribbean journalism,” he added.

Gibbings said that while the Caribbean “for the most part” had escaped the very worst effects of social and political upheavals that had characterised life in some countries, “the potential for an escalation of conflict remains a pervasive and imminent reality”.

“The unstable political circumstances of so many of our countries, the spectre of violence which now pervades the region and the prospect of economic collapse, all constitutes warning signals we ignore at our peril,” he added.