In the aftermath of a short and intense political campaign which ended Tuesday, 15 January 2008, with victory for David Thompson and his Democratic Labour Party (DLP), we continue to worry about the perennial problem of an ineffective media in Barbados – read Barbados Free Press. The willingness of our media practitioners to sway and buckle to political and other pressures should be of concern to defenders of our democracy. It is not acceptable that as a country we should pride ourselves on a high standard of education, yet our media practitioners continue to demonstrate that they are devoid of any courage by demonstrating their spineless disposition. We have written extensively about the importance of the role of the Fourth of Estate – enter keywords ‘fourth estate’ in our search area on the top of the page.
The time has come for media houses in Barbados to stop failing the people and to awake from their slumber.
There is a saying that people get what they deserve – well, something like that anyway – and in very much the same way that we are able to send a clear message every five years to the political directorate, so too we need to send a message to the owners of the Fourth Estate in Barbados. The only way we can expect balance reporting from our media houses is to speak-out against the inequities when they occur, embarrass them with our public comment, let them suffer by our lack of financial support, let us write to stakeholders such as the unions, and to their important clients and international watchdog agencies to help agitate for justice. The actions we can take as civic minded Barbadians are limitless.
Recently we have learned that the Nation newspaper have increased their advertising rates effective 1 January 2008. This increase comes against the back drop that the Nation Publishing Company is a very profitable company with a healthy market penetration in Barbados. Why is it that we are allowing this newspaper to disrespect us in this way? They continue to renege on their role as an important member of the Realms of the Estates, yet as citizens we pay them for doing so. Their commitment to improve shareholder value is laudable. Why should we blame them if they practice the free market concept of charging what the market will bear. The Starcom Group of companies is quite boastful when they publish the results of their Systems Surveys. Starcom Network currently dominates the media market in Barbados and command unrivaled market share. They are currently lobbying to get a TV license.
Certainly our Fair Trading Commission would have something to say about this if they apply the 40% rule.
The Media Houses in Barbados don’t care about freedom of expression, they care about making money. Any noises which they make in this regard must be labeled as lip-service only. Let us remember that Starcom Network is a publicly traded company trading under the name One Media based out of Trinidad. They are currently pursuing an acquisition strategy which will ultimately see news dissemination in the Caribbean consolidated in the hands of a narrow interest. The much respected Harold Hoyte and Sir Fred Gollop should be called to account for selling out Bajan majority interest in Starcom Network to fatten their bank accounts. Who are they fooling by spouting the rhetoric that a pan-media company is a visionary strategy. Give us a break!
In the same way that Starcom Network publicly asked former Minister of Tourism, Barney Lynch, how he acquired his perceived wealth, we, the public, should ask people such as, Vic Fernandez at Starcom, Harold Hoyte, retired publisher at the Nation and others, how they acquired their wealth. (It was only a short time ago Vic was the anchor for CBC TV news.) We are not seeking to sully the reputations of anyone. We simply want to highlight that a few people in our media houses have benefited tremendously from the support of Barbadians over the years. It is time some of these ‘fat cats’ in the media start to give something back. We have still not forgiven the Nation newspaper for feeding the behaviour which ultimately led to the departure of Roy Morris from that company!
The media practitioners in Barbados should be ashamed that after benefiting from our rich education system they do not have the will or the common sense to appreciate the benefit of coming together. Why is it that the Barbados Association of Journalists (BAJ) has been dormant for so many years? We will warn the media houses in the same way that we warned the previous government. There is a desire for change which is starting to gather momentum in our country. The Barbados Labour Party underestimated the power of the people. We hope that the learned people of our Fourth Estate can take heed.
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Barbados Underground 
This is a quiet incredible thread. It really shows the function of blogs to allow people to vent their feelings and frustration that otherwise get surpressed.
There is a lot of bickering, snipping, but some really thoughtful pieces that make you think and make you feel proud for local people (white, big-up, guyanese, partisan, just plain outright nasty too) It does present a problem that people think they can dismiss them because they are uninformed, but thats non-sense. This is democracy in action.
Really, really, this is a wonderful thing the BU.
Eve what you wrote, i hope more people get to read. Mr Loveridge i new the original owner of Arawak Inn, he was a good family friend – that is a special place, and you are a special person – all the best and dont let them get you down: Adrian i cant understand you, all the time, but appreciate your comments most of the time, SisterBaby, i cant stand the company of men all the time with their beating chest and pissing matches, so i really appreciate the comments, that Nation employee seems to have been trembling too much to get his typing straight behind his bosses back, Carson your a good decent person, and all the rest great.
I am going to continue with my long posts, I’ll break them into parts, and i promise you if you havent already read my books, that you certainly will be informed about Barbados, and also i think if i succeed the reading of them will be a journey in themselves.
Richard Hoads article was great, i miss going up to his goat farm evry couple of weeks and getting fresh goats milk for my son, as i used to do.
The link to Terry Alleys article, who is a good journalist, and proven himself many times, and people who have never done serious research, will not appreciate the significance.
We listened with great interest to Dr. Don Marshall as he hosted the call-in program yesterday. In response to a caller to extract his position on the freeing up of a TV license we got the impression he was squirming a little. Could it be that he agrees with us that Starcom network is not worthy of a TV license but to say what he really feels would conflict with him being able to host the show in the future? If we are wrong Professor we will be the first to apologize but again we got the impression that you were not your usual candid self when this matter was raised. Although you did not mention Barbados Underground and elected to mention our friends Barbados Free Press we know that all of you including the journalists now read the blogs as a matter of routine.
To your concern about the good, bad, and ugly which the blogs will attract. Let us focus on the positive. In order to get rid of the rotten apples, a few good apples may fall when we shake the tree.
I post every now again over at Barbados free press whenever i believe that there needs to be a clarification on the law or when i wish to give an opnion on somoething relating to the law. I wish to start doing the same here (i find this blog more balanced than BFP).
Persons reading these blogs often ask themselves why the mainstream media houses don’t bring the same type of stories that one can find here on these blogs. They go as far as to accuse them of purposefully seeking to hide the truth (which I highly doubt).
The likely reason is that if a defamatory story is published by the nation or advocate newspapers they WILL face a lawsuit for defamation.
All media corporations pay liability insurance to cover lawsuits but the more law suits that are brought the higher the premiums that must be paid.
I remind you of the law suit the nation faced in 1997 where they sought to expose and alleged child-pornography ring and were sued successfully. The nation’s initial story didn’t even mention the names of the persons
involved and they brought an eye witness to court in an attempt to show that the story was true. The moral of the story: Even if a defamatory article is true, you must prove it in court in order to rely on a defence of truth.
My point: A blog can post a comment or story without having to verify the reliability of the source and without seeking comment from the person defamed. A blog can post defamatory comments and not worry about defamation actions (as long as their identities aren’t know) or insurance premiums. The mainstream media houses can’t operate in the same way or they will be out of business before you know it.
anonlegal,
Your points are well made, but should people use blogs just to hide and defame others against whom they habour personal grudges?
I will never stop reading my newspapers, because I know that newspapers in Barbados are more truthful, responsible and reliable than any blog. Blogs have agendas.
Druze Militia @ B, F, P, E,
Anonlegal, thanks for the facts, I mentioned the same reasons why the fourth estate CANNOT or WOULD NOT print articles that will caused them undue pressure with a LAWSUIT. The laws are rigid with the media, plus the insurance company representing that media ensure that that media to do become reckless whilst publishing articles. Blogs are different, no insurance are required, and the identity of the sponsors are unknown, thus, the law have no one to charge.
Take this blog for example.
It routinely tries to suppress comments from us at B_F_P_E because we dare to challenge Adrian Loveridge the white foreigner who controls BU and BFP.
Every effort is made to silence and suppress us, but still we persevere, despite his attempts to stifle free speech online and make BU a pro-DLP propaganda machine.
HOORAY FOR MIA!!!!
WE HAVE A NEW OPPOSITION LEADER!!!!
Anonlegal~thanks for the clarification. We suggest to you though that many of our articles which have touched on the role of the media in Barbados speak about their refusal to carry standard news stories e.g. the delay in publishing the Danos story which was being carried by international news feeds weeks before the Nation published the story, the manipulation of headlines during the recent political campaign, the story which Brandford narrated at Haggatt Hall about the Nation selling all the stickies to the BLP therefore reneging on a verbal contract with the DLP. We could go on. The media in Barbados needs competition. Currently it is too concentrated. We have heard Prime Minister Thompson enunciating the view while in opposition that to bring prices down he will be promoting a policy which encourages competition. If he wants to be viewed as consistent he needs to do the same in the media sector.
even though you all say you are, it seems that NOBODY is impartial at either BFP or BU, they are either pro-Blp or pro-Dlp. We need some real impartaility please! What i have noticed is that some contributers have made claims about being censored under the past Blp “regime” when they critised the government. Don’t you think that the same will happen under this new government? That all critics of this new government too will be censored?What i do hope is that no personal vendettas are taken out under this new government or any other government. Congratulations to PM Thompson and his team… we all welcome change. Live up to all those promises, else we, the people, will vote you out too.
Did any other person find the comic about “Hail the King” in today’s Nation offensive or was it just me?
i was not referring to censorship from BU or BFP, i was referring to censorship from the local media. The fact the contributors have made claims about their censorship by the local media for their political views.
Veteran journalist David Ellis admits that the emergence of the blogs should concern the traditional media. U doubt that the old hacks of Vivian at the nation, Vic at VoB and Cox/Graeme at CBC will listen. Let them look at the USA where there is a strong traditional media but the blogs licking dog.
There is non so blind that refuse to see 🙂
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