Proud of our brave journalists

Desmond Allen

I CAN'T pretend. I take a very sympathetic approach in analysing media coverage of the recent West Kingston debacle, for the simple reason that we don't have any experience to speak of in reporting on riot situations. And training is non-existent. Reporters are usually just thrown into the 'battle' to sink or swim. If one is to give a mark, I would give the media a six out of ten, mainly for effort.

In particular, I reserve my best praise for Carol Francis of TVJ and Milton Walker of CVM-TV and their accompanying camera men for reporting under possibly the most dangerous conditions ever faced by Jamaican reporters. Spike bouquets are also due to Janice Budd of RJR and Zahra Burton of TVJ. It must have been very frightening for Irvine Forbes of CVM when gunmen fired at his news team in Grants Pen.

I was extremely impressed as well by Franklyn McKnight and Dionne Jackson-Miller of RJR's 'Beyond The Headlines'. They made me feel proud to be a journalist when they cornered a political party spokesman and forced him to back off from the raw, quite crude propaganda he was trying to feed them. Usually, we let off these guys too easily. If we can do more of this, journalism would have served our country well.

Mind you, there were weak points. To this day, the country appears confused about what really triggered the violence in West Kingston. Investigative reporting was missing. And while we spent a great deal of time on the human interest stories about those who suffered in Tivoli Gardens, we largely ignored the families of the security force members who lost their lives. Their pain is no less and we scored low in this regard.

There are two things which we immediately have to address, coming out of the July violence in West Kingston. The first is adequate insurance coverage for news teams and the second is training for this type of reporting. It was only two years ago - the April 1999 gas demonstrations - that we found ourselves reporting under riot conditions. And we still have memories of the 1979 and 1985 gas riots. The July 2001 outbreak of violence shows it is getting worse. In my view, it will get worse before it gets better. We need to be prepared.

Spike readers' comments

Dear Spike, I read with interest how you were hard-pressed to find an economic analyst to explain the current economic trends. You should not have been surprised. In a way it has to do with the anarchy that took place in Kingston and sections of the island last weekend. With the exception of Barbara Gloudon and Antoinette Haughton, all talk show hosts and political commentators have been skirting the issue.

Even the church leaders, the vaunted private sector, Jamaicans for Justice and civil society on a whole. No one is prepared to call a spade a spade. All excesses and abuses are wrong and should be condemned. But that doesn't mean that every time the police take action they are wrong. People firing at the police under any circumstances cannot be justified. It cannot be justified because they are poor or live in a particular inner-city community. It cannot be justified because they belong to a particular party and the police do not raid their political op-ponent's area.

People are free to protest, that's their right. But blocking roads is against the law. The million-dollar question is, who is going to benefit from all this madness?

Finally, you should have included Ralston Hyman in your list of economic analysts who call the shots as they see it. You should have heard the sparring with him and the eminent Basil Buck on the Breakfast Club two weeks ago. Haven't heard John Jackson in a while, but he always comes good. ­ Bill Wallace, Spanish Town.

Dear Spike, there have been some interesting pieces that have caught my attention recently. I will only list a few for now. Sometime ago, CVM carried a report about a ten-year-old boy who had been allegedly molested. My recollection is that the law precludes reference to anything that might identify the victim. Well, this report gave his age, had an interview with his mother and named the school he attended. Thursday July 12, The Gleaner had a caption indicating that a street woman was being sexually harassed. However it read "being sexually harassed against her will...!"

On the same day, The Observer had a story headlined "No outside help sought yet". The story has quotes from two overseas missions. The British said no request yet, the Americans said no comment on the inquiry. Even if the Americans had said no request yet, how could that translate to no outside help sought yet? Are these the only two countries that help could be sought from?

And finally, one of the reporters for TVJ in covering the fire at the Portmore Mall said "...some were partially damaged and others totally destroyed.". Let's all work together to help rid the final product of some of these needless errors and in this regard I think the column should be adapted for all the media houses.
­ David Geddes dgeddes@our. org.jm.

Hello, Mr. Allen, hope all is well with you. I, of course, continue to enjoy your pieces and spikeables, but let me run this one by you: In "A Time To Die" - your tribute to Raymond Sharpe, Elaine Mendez and Theodore Sealy, you pointed out that the "three together represented 220 years of solid journalism and in their own different ways have left a legacy to be treasured." But explain this, is this referring to 220 years combined that they lived or 220 years of "solid journalism?"

­ Dr Basil Bryan, New York cg@congenjamaica-ny.org.

Dear Desmond, Re: Badly needed: a few good financial analysts. In your article in the Gleaner's Online edition of Friday, July 13, 2001, you lamented that the current independent economic analysis of the Jamaican economy is now being almost entirely done by external agencies. Happily, this situation should not be for too long as a group of concerned Caribbean nationals and other persons who have an interest in Caribbean affairs have agreed to launch a number of scholarly publications which will cover most aspects of Caribbean affairs. We are in the process of drafting the legal documents to make this a reality and we expect to finalise these documents and have the entity up and running before the end of this year if we can get the necessary inputs from institutions and persons both in the Caribbean and the United States in time for our projected start up date.

If you wish, we would be happy to keep you updated on our progress. I have reprinted the content of your article as I am e-mailing my correspondence with you to some of my colleagues who are part of this initiative.

­ Audley Eccles, Chairman Caribbean Business Review/ Caribbean Social and Economic Journal AECCLES@aol.com.

Send spikeables to sp-ike@jol.com.jm; desal@cwjamaica.com; fax to 926-0295.

Back to Commentary