PM urged to stand up for free press

EXPRESSING ALARM at a scathing broadside against the local media on Tuesday from chairman of Parliament's Constituency Development (CDF) committee, Everald Warmington, the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) has called on Prime Minister Bruce Golding to reaffirm his administration's stated commitment to a free press in Jamaica.

The media watchdog urged Golding "to ensure that nothing was done by his administration to bar or in any way limit the freedom of the media to cover activities of parliamentary committees".

Warmington castigated the media for reports on the CDF during a committee meeting on Tuesday.

He took exception to The Gleaner's editorial comments on the CDF and a story on happenings in the committee published in The Sunday Gleaner of October 17.

"We suggest that the prime minister explain to Mr Warmington that his administration will not allow its members to use Parliament as a base from which to undermine press freedom in Jamaica," PAJ president Jenni Campbell advised.

"The PAJ's alarm springs from the crude and unbecoming manner in which Mr Warmington sought to express his dissatisfaction with The Gleaner, in particular, and the media generally. Use of terms like 'gutterism' to describe the work of journalists, and unfounded accusations of journalists 'creating news for themselves', belittle the status of the Parliament which Jamaicans are encouraged to respect and hold in high esteem," Campbell contended.

Better routes to air grouses

The PAJ said there were established mechanisms that any member of the society could exploit to air grouses and express different points of view.

"Instead of using the hallowed halls of Parliament to take cheap shots at the media, we recommend he (Warmington) use the established route of a letter to the editor, in the future."

According to the press oversight body, "The canons of our profession require that his opinions, as long as they are not libellous, slanderous or lewd, will be published."

The PAJ also raised concern about the CDF chairman's implied threat to return to the days when media were barred from covering the proceedings in this committee.