There was a time when, as a business journalist, you could call up the chief executive officer (CEO) of a company here in Barbados and ask for a comment on something, and you would often get it – on the record, warts and all.
It still happens today. For example, Sir Allan Fields gave me an excellent interview a few weeks ago, just after the Banks Holdings Ltd annual general meeting.
And although I disagreed with what his board had done regarding its common shareholders, I appreciated the fact that Sir Allan would still speak to me, that he spoke plainly and did not ask me to take anything off the record. I did my best with what he told me and have had no complaints from him about it.
But this is not the norm these days.
Since the arrival of public relations agencies, most companies have given the job of handling not only their bona fide PR events, like launching new products or handing out awards or donations, but also the news to public relations consultants.
Perhaps it is just a matter of having an outside agency, which knows the media organisations well, set up the event rather than give it to an administrative person who does not deal with the Press much.
But there is a heavy hand of finessing that intrudes far too often and it has led me to not attend most of these events.
There are two I want to mention here. I will call names.
The first is the Central Bank governor’s Press conference, which is held quarterly. Now, this is not a case of the governor trying to evade questions; it is the format. The quarterly review of the economy is now sent out the day before the Press conference, and rather than the almost laughable spectacle of a governor reading it out verbatim (which I have witnessed in years past), the Press can now go along and have a cosy chat on things economic with The Guv.
The effect, however, is muted by the set-up, for instead of sitting at a table with your notepad or computer in front of you, you are placed theatre-style before the governor, who then offers up some of the most bland and general comments ever known to issue forth from someone in his position.
He is not holding any notes and therefore the exchange is more akin to warm and fuzzy comments than detailed explanation of points the journalists are trying to raise.
I must confess I find it very dissatisfying from a journalistic point of view, hence my sporadic attendance.
The second is a recent example of annoying finessing by Al-Hart PR, which via email informed me that the new judicial manager of Clico Holdings Ltd, Deloitte Consulting Inc., was seeking “a meeting with the radio talkshow hosts/moderators as well as some of the key business journalists/editors to share information as it relates to this very sensitive issue”.
I don’t like it when people tell me the issue is “sensitive”. It is code for “this meeting will be off the record”. To describe as “sensitive”, the possible destruction of thousands of people’s life savings, pensions and insurance policies by a rogue company which continued hawking its annuities, even after it was told to stop, borders on insult.
It is not a sensitive issue; it is a national disgrace, and the more light that can be shed upon it the better.
I emailed Al-Hart back and told them that I would only be attending on the understanding that “anything said at such a meeting would be considered by me as for the public record and NOT off the record. I would therefore be recording the session if invited”.
Meantime, I encountered Deloitte CEO Oliver Jordan at another function and he gave me the impression that he was always of the opinion that the meeting would be for the public record. So I told him I would come.
Do you know that when I got back to my office, an email from Al-Hart was awaiting me which said: “Please note that this is a meeting and not a media conference, and the invitation has been extended to you to attend and participate rather than for coverage and therefore we are asking kindly that it is not recorded.”
Not a good start for the judicial manager, in my humble opinion.
Let me just say for the record that with regard to the affairs of CL Financial or any of its subsidiaries, there is no meeting I will ever attend on the basis of confidentiality.
I have no investment in the company and therefore we would not be negotiating anything personal to me or my family. If you want me to hear what you have to say, feel free to say it and I will feel as free as a bird to record and publish it.
Barbados has paid a dear price, in my opinion, in the loss of information which the public should have due to this sort of nonsense. This finessing must stop.
