Is Press Freedom Under Threat in the Caribbean?
October 17th, 2009SOURCE: KNIGHT CENTER, jOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS
The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) has warned media groups in the region of a bill being proposed by the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) that could threaten press freedom in the region, writer Nicholas Laughlin reports.
The bill calls for the licensing and registration of media workers, which ACM President Wesley Gibbings says is not subject to negotiation. “It is a well-established fact that the licensing of journalists constitutes an outright threat to freedom of the press and other rights. There is also a growing body of international judicial precedents which determines its unlawful nature.”
Laughlin adds, “With a few simple manipulations, this bill could essentially give Caricom governments the power to determine who can and cannot practice journalism. And it leaves citizen journalists — who the Caribbean mainstream media still don’t quite understand or respect — in limbo.”
Gibbings, Laughlin, and Global Voices Online’s Georgia Popplewell, hope to engage an international network that will read and publicize the draft bill of a policy that could affect the Caribbean Community.
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