LATEST NEWS:
News
Caricom Secretary General says there are no plans to license media workers
CMC
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretary General Edwin Carrington has denied that there was ever a plan by regional governments to license journalists working within the 15-member Caribbean grouping.
A statement issued on the website of the regional media organisation - the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) - said that Carrington gave the assurance during a telephone conversation with the ACM president Wesley Gibbings on Monday.
Last week, the ACM said it was "stunned" at the announcement of the imminent introduction of a Model Professional Services Bill to Caricom member states which calls for, among other things, the registration and licensing of media workers.
The Bill is meant to "regularise" and "harmonise" standards among professionals in a wide range of categories under the ambit of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, services, and labour across the 15-member regional grouping.
Deputy programme manager for services at the Caricom Secretariat, Timothy Odle, made the announcement at a CSME media workshop held in St Lucia earlier this month, attended by representatives of various regional media organisations and institutions, including the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union and the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication.
But according to the statement posted on the ACM website, Carrington said the issue of licensing journalists "has never been raised at any meeting of any official organ of the Caribbean Community.
"He said he knew nothing about such a proposal and that any suggestion that the licensing of journalists was envisaged by the Secretariat 'is not true'.
"Mr Carrington has given the assurance that such a measure has never been contemplated by either the Community or the Secretariat. He said any proposal to set standards and to better facilitate the free movement of media workers in the region had to be generated by the media themselves."
Gibbings said that he was pleased with the statement made by the Caricom secretary general.
"Hopefully, this means the end of any such soundings from the regional secretariat and that it is never contemplated by any Caricom member state in the future."
The ACM president said he was also "heartened by the responses of colleagues throughout the region on this issue".
"There appears to be virtual unanimity that the registering and licensing of journalists is unacceptable to the media fraternity and inimical to a social environment that fosters free expression," he added.
Representative media organisations in several Caribbean countries including Jamaica, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, had publicly denounced moves to license journalists, saying it was a threat to free speech and would hamper the ability of media workers to do their jobs.
Other Stories
NO BAIL - Jurors on corruption rap remanded
Cops seek women in murder of 93-y-o man
Tight security for JLP's 66th annual conference
Short break lands man in jail after all-day court wait
494, not 2000, students face exam ban, says UTech
JUTC still without contractors to service some routes
RM calls for empathy when dealing with young offenders
Police dismantle Clarendon gang
PM leads delegation to Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting
RSS Feeds