Hostilities between press and PM must end

Huntley Medley, Guest Columnist

There is an ongoing brouhaha between the Jamaican press and the prime minister (PM) that has reached farcical proportions. In this matter, both the media and the prime minister's office share blame.

On the OPM's part, there appears to be little structure for formal and informal engagement between the prime minister and the media. For whatever reasons, justified or not, the PM is seen to do few arranged interviews with journalists. Updates from the PM to the nation on topical issues are intermittent. Appearances by the PM at the post-Cabinet briefings are sporadic. Senior editors' meetings with the PM are almost non-existent.

There appears to be no reliable and consistent on-the-record or off-the-record encounters between the media and the PM's press and communication representatives to provide information and context to journalists for policies, programmes and actions of the PM or the Government. And I would be surprised to find the current PM dropping by the Press Club for a drink.

This situation has fed into a media frenzy whenever the PM attends public engagements. At these engagements, there is, more often than not, no identifiable press liaison from the prime minister's office to do on-location media management. Yes, I said media management! The media must be managed at public events.

PRESS SECRETARY'S DUTY

I spent some eight years in media management for a former prime minister. Before me, Ken Chaplin was known for his no-nonsense approach to marshalling journalists at official events involving visiting heads of government, as well as the several prime ministers with whom he worked.

If, for whatever reasons, the prime minister does not wish to come into close contact with journalists at a particular event, it is the duty of the PM's press secretary to coordinate with organisers, security personnel and the media to ensure that such contact is avoided. If relentless journalists have to be restrained, for good press relations, such an action is better done by the PM's press secretary and not the PM's security detail.

But in the absence of a press liaison and in the context of the PM's having expressed the wish not to give or continue with an impromptu interview, members of the PM's security detail are within their right and have a duty to provide a clear, unhindered path for the PM to traverse.

Journalists are within their right to be relentless in seeking comments from public officials, whether or not those officials want to provide comment and whatever the setting. They may even take advantage of lax security and protocol arrangements to get close to officials in pursuit of their story.

WHEN JOURNALISTS BECOME THE STORY

But the journalists must also accept that there are some hazards that come with their occupation. There is a tendency in Jamaica and perpetrated largely by junior reporters to make themselves the story when they are rebuffed while seeking interviews with public officials.

All over the world, reporters come in physical contact with close-protection security for officials. This may be deliberate or inadvertent. The security personnel are tasked with getting their charges from one location to another unimpeded. Very rarely, except in Jamaica, do we see the reporters making their being contained the subject of the story.

It appears to me that in the current scenario, there is a role for an organisation such as the Jamaica Information Service to provide assistance. The services of the chief state liaison - a position I created during a brief stint as head of the agency - could be activated to bridge the existing gaps in media relations, communication planning and on-location media management that appear to exist at the OPM.

The creation of the post and the appointment of the most senior media practitioner at the JIS to the position did, in fact, anticipate precisely the need for such assistance by any of the holders of three vital constitutionally created offices of the State - the governor general, the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition.

Huntley Medley is a communication consultant. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.