Caribbean

JAMAICA For the period under review, press freedom issues have been generally favorable. There are, however, some concerns. These concerns include the failure on the part of the Jamaican government to take steps to bring into law, amendments to the nation’s century-old libel laws; its failure to implement changes that would make the Access to Information Act more user-friendly; and a lack of action to repeal the archaic Official Secrets Act. The Officials Secrets Act bars public servants from releasing basic information. Prime Minister Bruce Golding is on record committing to change the Official Secrets Act. He said in Parliament that: ‘if next year we are going to be celebrating 50 years of Independence, then I would like to say bye-bye to this before we celebrate 50.’ The Access to Information Act (ATI) in its current form allows abuse on the part of some public officials who continue to use various excuses to refuse the release of certain government documents. The parliamentary Joint Select Committee examining the Act proposed that the ATI Unit should become a statutory body and be empowered to ensure that public bodies comply with the provisions of the Act. Such a move would address the current situation whereby many public authorities not only fail to comply with certain rules under the Act but fail to submit the required reports to the Unit. In relation to Jamaica’s libel laws, while the Parliament has approved a report proposing far-reaching changes many months ago, the government has just given drafting instructions to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to pave the way for the drafting of a final bill to enact the amendments. Once drafted, this bill must go back to the Jamaican Parliament for approval. While changes are expected, the media will continue to fight for a cap on libel awards; limiting the trial of defamation cases before judges only; allowing symbolic damages in circumstances where a plaintiff suffers no substantial damage; and in cases of public officials, place on them direct burden to prove defamation and damage. These changes are essential if the media is to be allowed to greatly increase its coverage against corruption in the Jamaican society. Policing of media continues to be a topic of debate. The Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) has drafted a code of conduct covering ethical and professional expectations of journalists. Discussions continue between the PAJ and the Media Association of Jamaica (MAJ) for this code to be adopted industry-wide. In the meantime, the Information Minister Daryl Vaz has criticized the PAJ for not delivering on a commitment to have in place a Media Complaints Council to police its code of conduct. But while discussions on this continue with the MAJ and the PAJ, there continue to be diverging views on the need for this Council. It is felt by some that a Media Complaints Council will allow for political interference in the business of the media. Notwithstanding, the PAJ and MAJ will continue the dialogue with a view to arriving at an appropriate solution. TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO The most salient factor affecting freedoms and general life in Trinidad and Tobago over the last six months has been the imposition by the government of a state of emergency. The People’s Partnership administration, elected to office by a large majority in May 2010, declared a state of emergency following episodes of criminal bloodshed. Extended until early December, the emergency proclamation entails a suspension of the constitutional bill of rights that includes freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of the press. A curfew, imposed under emergency rule, restricts freedom of movement in heavily populated parts of the country. From security sweeps and roadblocks by police and soldiers, thousands of arrests of suspects, and seizures of arms and ammunition and illegal drugs have been reported in the media. Relieving what could have been a climate of general fear and uncertainty, the courts have continued to operate independently. The Chief Justice and the Director of Public Prosecutions have publicly affirmed the rights of defendants to a fair trial, and the rights of all to unimpeded access to the courts of justice. Crime has been the subject of prominent and extensive coverage in all sections of the media. Notably since the emergency, the police have been supplying more information, more regularly, about their activities. The State has retained media assets--in radio and television with associated online presence--and the People’s Partnership administration has reinforced its control of and/or influence over those assets. In part, this has been achieved through recruitment of media personnel away from privately owned media companies. Through its placements of government advertising, the government, and State-owned businesses and agencies remain important players in the advertising market. It is evident that such spending power of public funds has been exercised to ensure an increasingly generous share for the State-owned media, and also for media entities whose reporting is generally regarded as favourable to the administration. One media house which, through the political connections of its proprietor, had been favoured by the former administration, has complained about receiving today a less advantageous share of State advertising than before. Thus, advertising placements by and on behalf of the State may be guided less by surveys that deliver empirically determined measures of market share, and more by subjective assessments of political acceptability. As a further mark of the heightened sensitivity shown by the administration to media reporting, high officials, such as the Prime Minister and the Attorney General and the Finance Minister have made themselves available on occasion for media interviews. In general, however, information concerning public affairs is for the most part inaccessible to the media and citizens. BARBADOS There were no formal reports of major violations in 2011. However, there is a nascent concern about the lack of official engagement that is taking place between the government and the media. Since coming to power on October 23, 2010 at the death of his predecessor David Thompson, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has not held a single press conference. The only attempt at a “journalistic” engagement since the start of the year came in the form of an interview on the state-run Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), conducted by a declared supporter of the ruling Democratic Labour Party, who spent most of her time during the interview referring to some journalist colleagues as government “detractors.” The established tradition of the past 20 years has also been to notify the press when ministers of government and officials leave and return to the island. However, it is now commonplace for officials to travel on official business without any formal notification of the press or the public for that matter. Generally, the tone of the administration has been to ignore the media and to group members of the press who dare to question aspects of its decision-making together with its political opponents, instead of viewing them as members of a serious and mature Fourth Estate whose job it is to ask the probing questions. In the recent budget presentation, Finance Minister Chris Sinckler was also dismissive of the contribution of four newspaper columnists and went on to describe them as “the horsemen on the apocalypse”, owing to the fact that they had taken a critical stance on the government’s handling of the economy. On the opposition side of things, there is also strong resistance to having the press report on recent internal party conflict for fear that any conclusion could be drawn that the Barbados Labour Party was airing “its dirty laundry in public.” Members of the press have therefore been subjected to attacks from individuals on the opposition benches, who are anxious to have bad things said about the Government, but when the tables are turned engage in varying degrees of intimidation. These range from threatening letters from lawyers to verbal attacks and personal threats. On the corporate end, there is also pressure to conform. One prestigious hotel recently pulled its advertising after the Nation newspaper reported on an incident that occurred at the hotel. On that occasion, the owners were not at all concerned about the balance of the story given that the reporter included the hotel’s side of the incident. They simply felt that a news item on the incident should not be in the newspaper. This attitude pervades the corporate sector as a whole, where advertisers generally hold the view that for as long as they are spending money with a media outlet they call the shots (the old “he who pays the piper calls the tune” mentality) and should be shielded from any perceived negative publicity. This can oftentimes put the editorial agenda at odds with the financial goals of the company. During the January 2011 political campaign in St John, the Nation also received little to no advertising from the ruling party, which chose to advertise with its competitor, which is seen as the “pro-government” paper. On the state-run CBC - the only television station in Barbados - the nightly parade of ministers also continues unabated, despite promises by both the current and past administrations to ensure balanced programming, equal air time, as well as more transparency and greater integrity in office. While there has been liberalisation of the radio airwaves, the issuance of licenses for that medium is still not as transparent as practitioners would like it to be. Barbados has yet to boast of a Freedom of Information Act, despite active talk of such in recent years. Other countries in the Eastern Caribbean have also failed to enact legislation to support the operations of a free and unfettered press. EASTERN CARIBBEAN AND GUYANA Stronger tensions exist between the political directorate and the media in these countries. The suspicion is such that the recent arrest in Grenada of prominent journalist Leslie Pierre was initially reported as an issue of press freedom. However, it was soon proven to be over a personal land deal that went sour. In the Eastern Caribbean as well as Guyana, political control of the media also remains a matter of concern owing to the presence of media outlets with strong political affiliation and backing. In fact, independence is dispensed with and in its place stands blatant partisanship that is allowed to run rampant on the air. Attempts by media practitioners to get access to public documents and statistical information are often blocked and public officials tend to be dismissive of journalists. In Guyana, where a ban remains in force against journalist Gordon Moseley from covering the Office of the President, President Bharrat Jagdeo is now suing the privately run newspaper Kaieteur News for $10 million (200,000 US dollars approximately), claiming that a column entitled “King Kong sent his goons to disrupt the conference” pointed to Jagdeo as ‘King Kong.’ The President has claimed that the article suggests that he is a racist and that “by extension, the State and Government of Guyana, practice racism as an ideology, dogma, philosophy and policy.” With national and general elections constitutionally due by December 28, the President has also ordered CNS TV Channel Six owner Chandra Narine Sharma off the air for four months effective October 3, 2011. The suspension came on the advice of the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting following the May 2011 airing of a commentary by former PNC MP Anthony Vieira who made a critical allegation about the Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission, Bishop Juan Edghill. The Television has apologized, but Bishop Edghill has filed a motion against Sharma and Vieira seeking more than $50M in damages. The four-month suspension of CNS Channel Six will begin on 1 December instead of the original date of 3 October. The president himself announced this on 9 October at the same time as he announced that the general and regional elections will take place on 28 November. Sharma had been sanctioned before for comments aired on a live programme but in this case Vieira’s comments were made during a taped programme. The APNU presidential candidate, David Granger declared the closure of the station a breach of Article 146 of the constitution and it silences the voice of the opposition on the station just a few weeks from elections. This produces an un-level playing field since the opposition cannot get airtime on the state owned media NCN while the ruling party has full control of MCM and other media houses across the country. St. Vincent and the Grenadines continue to feel the effects of the global economic downturn. Economic activity contracted by 1.8 per cent last year, and according to the IMF, this is expected to continue in 2011. The situation was made worse by the effects of Hurricane Tomas in October 2010, which wiped out much of the agricultural sector and seriously damaged the housing stock in the north of the country; and by serious flooding in April 2011. The main violation of press freedom in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the failure of the government to make the Freedom of Information Act (2003) operational. However a clause in Section 2 of the Act states “This Act shall come into operation on a day to be appointed by the Minister, by order published in the Gazette” - which means that until the Prime Minister (who is the Minister in this case) ‘gazettes’ a date for the implementation of the Act, it will not be enforced. No explanation for the delay has been forthcoming. The editor of one of the national newspapers (The News), Shelly Clarke, has reported that in the lead up to the 2005 general elections, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves made what he (Clarke) took to be a threat when he did not agree to endorse the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. Mr. Clarke did not specify the nature of the threat. On the positive side, radio talk shows are flourishing and numerous letters to the editor, highly critical of the government, are published by the three national newspapers. Advertisements from the government and statutory corporations of the government are published in all three newspapers, including The News newspaper of Mr. Clarke.