Letter to the Editor

March 19, 2023

Dear Editor,

Please permit me to express my opinions and views of what I view as an erosion of public confidences in the Mainstream media.

Historically, Bahamians have always held the view that the National media ZNS is under censorship by the government and the dissemination of information influenced by political meddling.

What is troubling is that the government appears to now be silencing and influencing the other media radio and television stations for favorable coverage in their favor. At the same time, activist groups and alternate political parties have not been given a fair play as they are generally portrayed in a negative manner by the withholding of certain information and details in the story that can present a more accurate, truthful and fact based story. This undermines fair competition and tries to smear these alternate parties as their opponents.

For example, following a recent protest in Nassau, the Media showed a video after provocation by police to paint a false narrative that the demonstrators were the agitators when in fact the opposite occurred and the police were the aggressors. Another example of media bias is to show the Coalition of Independents (COI) group as Xenophobic when in fact they are against illegal migration and NOT legal migration.

It is NOT right when dissenting voices or activist are perceived in a negative way or as a threat to the government and we certainly do not want the appearance of our government to be moving in the direction of a Fascist or Authoritarian state.

In a democracy, the media should be non-bias, objective and hold the government and others to account in a level playing field. Mr. Lincoln Bain , an activist and party leader has been advocating for natural resources, immigration and human rights to name a few platforms recently ——issues that people care about greatly. He has generally been barred from invitations on these networks to educate and enlightened the public.

Professional journalists know that there are certain standards and ethics they were taught in University training like honesty, objectivity, fairness and fact based information. In other words “ GET BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY honestly”. Withholding certain facts and information from one side may lead to tarnishing someone’s reputation unnecessarily. Media freedom has been deteriorating recently in the Bahamas by allegedly government meddling in contracts, decisions to favor certain journalist etc. The repressive nature of our government and the appearance of the controlled media is now causing an alternative source for FREE EXPRESSION ( social media) of the masses since access to honest and fact based journalism is deteriorating in the mainstream media.

I am appealing to everyone to TAKE OF YOUR BLINDERS OFF!!

Remember, this new generation is a completely different Beast and with major technological platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Tik Tok and others, mainstream media will be suffocated for good or bad. THIS IS THE JOSHUA GENERATION.

I believe in our democracy and the rule of law and a free and independent media sector should keep it’s citizenry informed and hold those in power accountable.

And finally, this is not a vilification of the press but an admonition to present fair, honest and unbiased discourse. Thank you for giving the space to express my sentiments.

Regards

Dr. Veronica McIver