Mandeville, Manchester – Concerned that he is being targeted, a television videographer in south-central Jamaica says he is “seriously” contemplating staying away from “all further political meetings” in the build-up to parliamentary elections which must be held before November.

The videographer, who asked not to be identified, said he had discerned a pattern of threats, intimidation and verbal harassment from party supporters at recent political events that had left him fearing for his own safety.

“I don’t think I want to cover any more politics,” the videographer told the Sunday Observer.

He and others in the media fraternity say the sense of hostility some party followers feel towards the media would have been heightened by remarks recently by Prime Minister and ruling People’s National Party (PNP) president Portia Simpson Miller charging bias against her party by one television station.

The cameraman’s fears come against the backdrop of a vicious attack on a colleague over a year ago in Slipe, South-West St Elizabeth. Then TVJ videographer Rodney Longmore was badly beaten, his camera destroyed and his car smashed by angry demonstrators following a police shooting. Longmore suffered a broken ankle when a protestor dropped a building block on his foot.

Yesterday, president of the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), Desmond Richards, said while he was hearing for the first time about the allegations of intimidation in south-central Jamaica, he was in the process of setting up a meeting with “relevant parties” following Simpson Miller’s comments last week.

The intention would be to remind the political representatives that everyone would be better off if they make their complaints to the PAJ, the Media Association of Jamaica (MAJ) and individual media houses rather than from political platforms.

“Our politicians have to be careful about what is said from political platforms,” said Richards.

Irvine Forbes, acting managing editor at CVM Television, told the Sunday Observer that his station had become so concerned it was initiating “dialogue with other media houses to see what decisions we may need to take”.

Moya Thomas of TVJ reiterated a position she had taken on television that political leaders needed to be particularly careful and to take “responsibility for what comes out of their mouths when they have a captive audience, since they are clearly not in charge of their foot soldiers”. According to Thomas, the lack of control by the political leadership was evident in the political motorcades and convoys which, without exception, had people blatantly breaching the laws of the road.

The truth of Thomas’s comment was brought forcefully home to one reporter driving an unmarked car while on his way to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) mass meeting in Grey Ground, Manchester on Thursday night.

On stopping at a red light in Mandeville, the reporter was verbally abused when he refused to drive through the red. Two cars packed with green-clad JLP supporters then drove around him to block the other side of the intersection and in the process those motorists who had the green light. With the reporter still refusing to drive through the red light, a green-clad man came to his window and cursed him: “Bwoy, drive di *@#! car,” the man said.

“Get away from here,” the reporter responded, at which point the man reached inside the passenger side of the car and slapped the reporter’s left wrist with his left hand before walking away. About 300 metres further on, the reporter, worried about the speeding and reckless behaviour, including improper overtaking, among members of the JLP convoy, pulled over to allow the line of vehicles to go by.