Letters

The Editor, Sir:

Understandably irritated by persistent media calls for his resignation, the prime minister says he is "disappointed with the strategy that is being played out"; and he complaints that "... there are persons in Jamaica who do not want the propaganda to be disturbed by the facts ..."

If this is an attack on the media it is indeed a very mild one, which hardly justifies the dire warnings of danger to press freedom, which have been issued by the Opposi-tion leader and her communications commissioner. To believe that the utterances of politicians present any real threat to press freedom is to be unaware of the severe attacks that news agencies and journalists have survived in the past.

Mr Golding's statements pale in comparison to the organised assaults that peaked when the People's National Party mounted a massive march and public meeting outside The Gleaner office and threatened, "When the time comes the people will take into their own hands, the present ownership of The Gleaner and those who control it ..."

Bashing the media

Listen to Golding and then listen to another prime minister who openly remarked that The Gleaner had " ... embarked on a campaign we think is based on the deliberate and malicious printing of slanders, lies and things of that kind." He also said, "They pick any dirt that's running around the corridors and publish it as fact ... ."

Golding's words cause no holes in anybody's skin or shivers in anyone's spine. They are not like the punches rained upon columnist John Hearne who had dared to attend a PNP conference after writing critically of the party. They do not match the cutting out of the tongue of the employee of The Voice newspaper, or even the putting of Wilmot Perkins before the bar of parliament to answer for stories appearing in the press. The government of the 1970s went so far as to have two resolutions placed before the Jamaican Parliament condemning The Gleaner. Did any of this affect the growth of the media?

Both PNP and JLP have been known to wage newsprint and advertising boycotts as well as other forms of interference against media houses and their employees. None of these have succeeded in stifling public expressions. The media have survived, and will continue to grow and to serve the Jamaican people regardless.

There is room for all opinions and no one really needs to worry or fret for the media when, like everyone else, it gets its share of criticism.

I am, etc.

KEN JONES

kensjones2002@yahoo.com