Heather RobinsonI AM old enough to remember when the People's National Party had meetings that were private. This included the full range of meetings from the basic group meeting to the PRIVATE session of annual conference. In between these meetings there are the meetings of the constituency executive, the PRIVATE session of the constituency conference; the regional executive conference (REC), the executive of the party and the National Executive Council (NEC).
Yes, I am able to remember when it was only the Sunday public session of the annual conference that had the media invited and present. Some might argue that with today's demand for information and the presence of so many and varied media houses to present reports on the proceedings and discussions of political parties, things and times have changed and we should all recognise and accept this.
But there is another set of arguments that can be put forward. During the last decade severe changes have taken place in how the public is informed about the discussions of the two major political parties. In the case of one party, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), there has been a constant and sustained pressure by some journalists and talk show hosts to get the 'scoop' on what happened at the weekly Monday meeting of the JLP executive.
Reports reportedly emanating from this private meeting have at times been so detailed that the reports have provided in some cases verbatim remarks. So it is obvious that there are not just senior Labourites in these meetings but agents or trainee reporters present as well. These reports have had a negative impact on the JLP, its leader and leadership, while at the same time giving the Jamaican electorate a bird's eye view of the 'real' JLP.
PUBLIC SCRUTINY
They have publicly exposed all their soiled and worn green shirts. But is it right to subject the private deliberations of the JLP to this type of public scrutiny? It is a political party, yes, that wants to form the next Government, but can we subject the meetings of the board of directors of the Gleaner Company and Radio Jamaica which are listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange to this same level of scrutiny? Does the media really belong at the private/closed session of the annual conference? If it is that they do, then political parties should stop referring to these meetings of delegates and observers as being private or closed. The meetings should simply be referred to as a meeting of the delegates and observers to which the media and Jamaica are invited (through the media).
In the years when the PNP had real private sessions from the Thursday to the Saturday of annual conference special effort and care was exercised to ensure that no journalist was inside the meeting, and certainly not with a recording device. During these private sessions comrades were able to express themselves openly without the fear of being reported, or worst yet, misquoted.
HAD NO PLATFORM
Those who now speak for Jamaica to hear, rather than the delegates of the PNP had no platform from which to perform in those days of yore. There clearly is a time and place to speak to party members and supporters in private, and political parties must not give up this right.
In the same way that the board of directors of Jamaica's two oldest media houses have the right to express themselves and plan and prepare for a more profitable year in private, so do political parties.
This, however, does not mean that good journalists should be restricted from getting information about the private deliberations of political parties. The leadership of political parties must begin to insist once again on their right to privacy. And those who give up this right must at all times remember that the presence of a microphone many a man has made, and equally many a man has destroyed.
It is only from the practical examples that our politicians set, that we as a people will be able to trust them to their own private deliberations and, in any case, if politicians could live their lives by only saying what they wish to have repeated, then there really would be no need for any discussion about the right to privacy.
Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former Member of Parliament.
