INFORMATION minister, Burchell Whiteman, yesterday lauded the Observer’s contribution to national development over the past decade and at the same time declared the government’s commitment to a free and fearless press which not only promoted wholesome values but exposed corruption wherever it existed.

Whiteman spoke at a mass at the Stella Maris Roman Catholic church in Kingston which Observer staff shared with the regular congregation as part of the newspaper’s celebration of its 10th anniversary.

The Observer was launched in March 1993 as a weekend weekly before going bi-weekly in June of that year and daily in December, 1994 and in the process has broken the stranglehold of the 168-year-old Gleaner on the Jamaica newspaper market.

“You have broken the monopoly and provided us with an opportunity for choice,” Whiteman said, noting, too, the paper’s embrace of modern technology and some of the paper’s innovations in journalism and community service.

“Editorially, you have recognised the critical importance of reminding the nation of the importance the challenges of living in a globalised system of production and trade and therefore encouraged us to strengthen the regional mechanisms for our survival, growth and prosperity,” he added.

The minister also praised the paper’s support for the country’s education system through the supplementary lessons it publishes, but particularly highlighted the Observer’s contribution to the literary arts through its Sunday arts supplement and the publication of anthologies from the short stories and poems that first appeared in the paper.

“Very specially, you have encouraged our literary artists,” Whiteman said. “We live not by facts and information alone but by the exercise of the creative imagination, and good creative writing enriches reader and writer alike.”

According to Whiteman, this administration, which has been in office since 1989, “has deliberately fostered a culture of openness to the media”, and had liberalised the media environment on a recognition of “the value of competition”.

“We have respected the freedom of the press to report and comment fearlessly, within the ambit of the laws of the land,” the minister said. “And more than that, as the prime minister said only last week, we rely on the press to expose corruption wherever it exists as the country seeks to promote wholesome values and integrity as a way of life for all our citizens.”

Monsignor Richard Albert who officiated at yesterday’s mass, held on the second Sunday in Lent, asked for God’s blessing for the Observer so that “they may continue their role in nation-building and always present the truth”.

But Albert’s wider message to his congregation, in the context of the Lenten season, was for people to renew their relation with God who sacrificed his Son for the redemption of man.

“Lent is a time to fall in love with God… to confront myself and to change,” Albert remarked.

And he argued that it was a relationship to be conscientiously worked at.

“We always seek to progress professionally,” the priest said, noting how a person during his career continuously trains and attempts to learn to move ahead.

“But when it comes to spiritual life we seem content with being mediocre,” Albert said.

Nonetheless, he added, no matter how far man strayed from God, “Christ is there to bring us back. Christ always wants us.”

But man, at the same time, should “prepare ourselves to come clean with God”, Albert said.

At yesterday’s mass the Observer’s managing director, Trevor Riley, presented a cheque on behalf of the company, to the Stella Maris church to help with their ministry for the poor in Grant’s Pen.