Caribbean

CARIBBEAN Antigua & Barbuda The Observer Radio’s appeal to the Privy Council in London is scheduled to be heard on November 13 and 14 this year. The radio station maintains that its constitutional rights were violated when it was shut down in a police raid after just one day of operation in September 1996. Barbados There have been no reports of restriction of press freedom. Grenada The editor and owner of the weekly Grenada Today, George Worme, is facing two charges of criminal libel for publishing a letter accusing the prime minister of paying bribes to swing last year’s election in his favor. Despite being cautioned by police, he went ahead and republished the letter and wrote a page one attack on the prime minister. A radio announcer and talk show host was charged with seditious libel after asserting in another radio station’s broadcast that the government had ordered the murder of a cabinet minister who had recently resigned. Guyana The privately-owned newspaper Stabroek News and several private televisions stations are operating freely and without censorship or interference. The government has so far resisted pressure to issue licenses for private radio stations and maintains a radio monopoly. However, new broadcasting legislation is due shortly and this situation is likely to change. Jamaica The Gleaner Company Limited’s appeal against the two major libel awards handed down against the Company in 1995 and 1996 of approximately $650,000 and $2.3 million, respectively, came before the Appeals Court. On July 31, the Court reduced the $2.3 million award to about $1million. The Gleaner Company gave notice that it planned to appeal this new ruling to the Privy Council in London. The government is drafting two bills; one on the Freedom of Information Act and another on making new provisions for the monitoring and elimination of corruption in the performance of public functions known as the Corruption (Prevention) Act. The media have strongly opposed a section of the bill that would prohibit and impose heavy fines for publication or use of information contained in “any declaration, letter or other document,” as long as it is known or ought to be known that it comes from a member of the Corruption Prevention Commission and there is no reasonable ground to believe that the information relates to an act of corruption or any investigation into corruption.