The position taken by Minister Donville Inniss regarding the vote of $9.2 million to liquidate the outstanding debt of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was interesting. He seemed to be putting a case for privatisation of this state corporation.
However, the minister did not go far enough in his presentation. He should have expanded his argument by commenting on the rather biased and partisan manipulation of news coming from our lone television station.
That $9.2 million comes from the pockets of Barbadian taxpayers and not from the coffers of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Therefore, the voices of the members of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) or any other entity in Parliament must be heard.
Viewers would have noticed that Prime Minister Freundel Stuart’s address to his party’s annual convention was broadcast to the nation via CBC TV, and not that of Opposition Leader Mia Mottley at her party’s convention, even though she offered to pay for the broadcast.
On February 27, I decided to watch the CBC Evening News and was flabbergasted by what I saw. The first 15 minutes featured Ministers Richard Sealy, Darcy Boyce (Energy), Adriel Brathwaite, Sealy again, DLP candidates Nicholas Alleyne and Kim Tudor, Minister Denis Kellman, followed by DLP campaign manager Robert Morris and Boyce (Energy) again.
That weekend the BLP had a mass meeting at Lester Vaughan School, at which Mottley spoke. There was also the opening of the constituency branch office of BLP candidate Neil Rowe in St Michael North West. Yet not a single report was offered by CBC to create some sort of balance.
I do not have to remind the very learned Prime Minister of the role and importance of a free press within a democratic country like Barbados.
So, Minister Inniss, is this the kind of viewing Barbadians will be subjected to by your Government between now and the call of the election?
– DAN C. CARTER
