Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
AS MEDIA figures meet in Barbados for the Conference on Caribbean Media Annual World Press Freedom Day, president of the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), Desmond Richards, believes Jamaican journalists are themselves limiting their own press freedoms.
Mr. Richards, who is also managing editor of The Sunday Herald, said that to serve the public interest, journalists should rely less on "controlled" sources such as press conferences, do more independent investigation and involve themselves in the review process of the Access to Information Act.
A NEW DIRECTION
"The issue is that journalism in Jamaica needs a baptism of fire to take a new direction. This is really a plea to the journalist to take on more advocacy issues, to be more than 'he said, she said'," said Mr. Richards.
By repeatedly attending the same press conferences as their competitors, he contended that journalists and news organisations were merely duplicating their efforts.
"Is the public interest being served when all the media converge on these same events so many times?" he asked. "It is time for us practitioners to ask whose interests we are serving."
The PAJ wants freedom of the press, as with other countries, to be written into the Jamaican Constitution. Currently, only the more general 'freedom of expression' is guaranteed.
He said the PAJ was currently conducting research and would ultimately present recommendations more recognisable to the less restrictive libel laws enjoyed in the United States, as opposed to the narrower United Kingdom model, on which Jamaican law is based.
