Defending Press Freedom | IAPA to revise Caribbean’s press freedom profile

Media and journalism watchdog the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) wants to bump up issues surrounding press freedom in the Caribbean to global prime time over the next year, even as it tracks and comments on such matters affecting the media in the Caribbean and South, Central, and North Americas, where IAPA represents its members, numbering in the thousands.

Chief operating officer of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group Christopher Barnes, who was elected IAPA president in October, told The Gleaner in an interview that increasing the influence of the organisation in the region and raising the profile of press-freedom issues in the Caribbean are among the priorities for his one-year tenure.

Also high on the agenda for Barnes are matters pertaining to economic sustainability for the organisation’s members, many of which are said to be grappling with disruptions to their operations caused by technology. Such disruptions include the expenses associated with retooling and modernising, as well as competition posed by social-media platforms. Social media, he says, facilitates free access to, as well as the publishing and distribution of, unregulated information, often unvetted or unverified, that threatens to undermine the quality and availability of responsible journalism by reducing readership and revenues needed to pay journalists and cover other costs associated with the traditional press.

This is especially so for the approximately 1,300 newspapers that IAPA once represented exclusively before broadening its reach to include radio, television, and other media. The umbrella organisation, he thinks, must now introduce programmes that can assist affected media houses to migrate to more sustainable models of operation. Integrating the reach of social media with the responsible reporting of traditional media is a route that is being pursued by most media houses towards a more sustainable operating model.

“Sometimes stories in traditional media seed discussions on social media,” Barnes observes.

Noting that IAPA presidents build on the work of their successors, the incumbent says that the association’s leaders are also supported by an executive committee and secretariat led by an executive director based in Miami, Florida, in the Unites States.

Guard press freedom vigilantly, says IAPA president

Press freedom is an important pillar of democracy globally that must be guarded with great vigilance, says Inter American Press Association (IAPA) President Christopher Barnes.

“Media have to ask tough questions on behalf of the people, and so IAPA is a watchdog of freedoms on behalf of the people,” Barnes says, noting that political organisations and individuals exist to contest for power, often to the detriment of the people they are supposed to serve. The probing questions of the media, he adds, act as guardians of democracy and transparency.

“We are seeing leaders in some countries rallying their bases against the media. People are being rallied against the very institutions that are protecting their rights and that ensure transparency in governance and society,” he notes.

The IAPA president is concerned about the murder and intimidation of journalists globally and especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. He points to dangerous signals in this regard in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, including recent reports of threats against the media from the head of the police force in Trinidad and Tobago and criticisms from the prime minister of Jamaica. Such acts, according to Barnes, serve to undermine the freedom of the press as a critical pillar of democracy.

“That is bad business for the region. At the first sight of press freedom being impinged upon, we have to call them out,” Barnes insists.

He is wary, too, of encroachments on the rights of media and the people they serve, from policies and laws that which seek to limit access to information. He points to the case of Jamaica, where there have been talks about extending the period of exemption of certain government documents from public disclosure from 20 years to 70 years and proposals to drastically increase fines for media activities such as still photography on court premises.

Not shy about holding media houses and journalists to the highest standards of professionalism, the IAPA president says that the media and society need to be mindful of these creeping impingements on the work of a free press.

Barnes optimistic about resilience of media

Christopher Barnes, president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and chief operating officer of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, is concerned about Jamaica’s recent slippage in the press-freedom rankings.

Barnes has, however, pointed out that the country’s fairly good press-freedom grade over the years, compared to even some more advanced economies, has been the result of hard work by the media, supported by various other sectors of the Jamaican society.

“Jamaica is performing globally at the top in terms of our stock market, sports, press freedom, etc. It’s a pride of place that we hold. I am sure that our leaders understand that this is something that we all want and something that is good for Jamaica,” the IAPA president says in expressing what he hopes is a national view.

MEDIA DIVERSITY

Barnes, who joined media some 12 years ago as an engineer with a finance degree operating in a newspaper setting, now appreciates the importance and diversity of all media, especially since being part of an integrated media group involving print, radio, television and Internet operations as with the RJRGLEANER Communications Group. He is optimistic about the resilience of all media formats and their ability to survive if they change with the changing global and local realities that affect them.

“It was said that radio was going to die with the advent of television. That has not happened. Radio, TV, and print will live on for years to come and will be around for the foreseeable future,” says the IAPA president.

huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com