Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Maxine McClean says it was the Jamaican media – not the Barbados Government – that put Shanique Myrie’s allegations about a body search at Grantley Adams International Airport in the public domain.
McClean said she responded via a Press conference last Saturday, because the Jamaican media never allowed investigation of the alleged incident to take due process.
She was responding to criticism from Opposition parliamentarian Mia Mottley who said that by hosting the Press conference Government had allowed the public to become involved in a matter that was now being driven by emotions instead of facts.
The minister said the media in Jamaica had not even given the Barbadian officials at the airport a chance to respond before publicizing Myrie’s story.
Both McClean and Mottley were at the time responding to discussions on the Starcom call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks in which the Jamaican woman’s allegations against Barbadian airport officials had been highlighted.
On March 14 Myrie was deported to Jamaica and reported to the Jamaica Observer that she was subjected to a cavity search by a female Immigration officer at the Grantley Adams International Airport.
The Foreign Minister said: “I never received any calls before they carried the story and furthermore I am not responsible for Immigration so I would not have been the first person to call.
“Let me also state that I have cellular phones with all the latest technology to see whether people call and I have no evidence in my house or at work that they called me prior to Thursday.”
She further added that the story carried in the Jamaica Observer “did not speak of allegations”, but spoke as if the incident had indeed taken place.
“If you read the stories carried, certainly the one coming out of Jamaica, it didn’t speak of allegations, it read as if this thing had happened, and that is where I think the media has a major responsibility to ensure that by its statements and actions a situation is not created which can lead to dire consequences before we even get to understand what the facts are,” the minister explained.
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