PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad(CMC):
The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) Monday said some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states were preventing regional media practitioners from working in the Caribbean even though they were in possession of the CARICOM Skilled National Certificate.
The ACM said that the certificate which allows media practitioners to work in the region under the free movement of skills as outlined under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) was not being honoured by some countries.
Skilled certificate
"CARICOM Skilled National Certificates as they relate to media workers are not being consistently recognised in the region. There are now media workers with skills certificates from more than one country," said ACM president Wesley Gibbings in an end-of-year message posted on the region media organisation's website.
"Certainly, this was not the original intention. To insist that media workers apply for certificates from their adopted countries, in addition to certificates granted by their home countries is absolutely inconsistent with the original design of the free movement provisions of the treaty."
Gibbings said that he was "amazed that more journalists have not taken this up as a valid story.
"It is a travesty and amounts to official sleight of hand to reintro-duce the notion of a work permit. CARICOM countries need to decide whether they want this or not. The ACM did not participate as a member of the advisory council to the prime ministerial sub-committee on the CSME with this in mind, and the current procedure does not have our blessings," he said.
Gibbings said that in 2008, the regional media body would continue to keep a keen eye on the "challenge of threats to freedom of the press.
Antigua and Barbuda
"We note with concern recent regulatory developments in Antigua and Barbuda - to be replicated, we understand, through-out the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) - which have the potential to impose new levels of censorship in the broadcast media.
Trinidad and Tobago
"The challenge of Trinidad and Tobago's proposed broadcasting code is not dissimilar," he added.
Guyana
The ACM president said the grouping was also concerned over the "continuing state advertising boycott of the Stabroek News" in Guyana, which he said "is being viewed in the context of official action to stifle dissent and to punish recalcitrant media.
"Its impact on the practice of journalism in Guyana is yet to be fully examined, but the prospect of substantial reductions in advertising revenue will no doubt have the potential to steer media coverage along more conservative editorial lines.
Jamaica
"In Jamaica, we need to keep an eye on proposed revisions to defamation legislation being considered by a multi-sectoral team which includes the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ).
"This is a move in the right direction, but one that needs to be delicately negotiated to ensure that ad hoc reform of one branch of media law is not accepted as absolute acceptance of all other regulatory conditions affecting media.
"In the process, as well, we would expect that the Government of Jamaica also use the opportunity to remove criminal defamation from its statute books. This would set a highly positive precedent throughout the Caribbean and the Commonwealth as a whole."
Freedom of movement
Gibbings said that the ACM was also looking forward to "more consistent application of the freedom of movement provision of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which specifically grants such rights to media workers.
"The expulsion of (journalists) Vernon Khelawan and Lennox Linton from Antigua and Barbuda earlier in 2007 provided evidence of a lack of commitment to the principles under which such a provision was embraced both by international treaty and domestic legislation," he said.
Journalistic safety
The ACM said it would also be collaborating with the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and the Haitian-based SOS Journalistes Association on hosting a workshop on journalistic safety early in 2008.
Gibbings also disclosed that the ACM in 2008 would focus on matters of internal organisation and consolidation, as well as apply for formal membership of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), which monitors free expression issues globally, "and revisit our constitution and code of ethics.
Online courses
The ACM, which is now compiling its second State of the Caribbean Media Report, said it had also reached agreement with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas for online courses on digital media and investigative journalism to begin in March.
"Our mentoring programme for young Caribbean journalists is being developed and is being put up for project funding and should be launched early in the new year," he said adding that the grouping is also developing a project to produce an Elections Handbook for Caribbean Journalists.
"The idea has already received favourable feedback from prospec-tive benefactors and a team is being assembled to manage the research and production processes."
West Indies cricket
Gibbings said that on the invitation of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the ACM has submitted a prospectus for the staging of a regional media workshop on West Indies cricket.
"This forms part of our overall campaign to maintain contact with a variety of regional institutions and to establish our bona fides as a representative regional organisation. Such recognition is already extended by the CARICOM Secretariat and regional and international organisations active in the Caribbean," he said.
