ONCE again, journalists faced the challenge of covering a major event that will form a significant part of Jamaican history. How well we responded to that challenge is still to be fully determined, and only time will tell. But in the short term, we can have a sense of the quality of coverage.

Of course, Spike has not had enough time to do the requisite analysis which, to be really useful, should be exhaustive. But give it time. There are, however, a few important points that should be noted in the interim.

It is the first time since the 1976 State of Emergency that journalists have operated with such a high level of muzzling by the State. For the State of Emergency in 1988 and 2007, being hurricane-related, there were no attempts to bar the media from doing as full a job as we could muster.

In the present situation, we were allowed freedom to report only up to the second day of the deployment of the security forces to retake Tivoli Gardens. Before that, the coverage was relatively healthy and I would give it more than a passing grade.

Then things changed dramatically for the worse, when the news teams were barred from entering the ‘war’ zone for good reasons some might argue. A huge vacuum was created and the authorities had not offered anything to fill it. The series of media briefings only came when the PNP suggested it, and that was fairly late in the day.

But while the vacuum existed, the media had to respond to the overwhelming demand for information from a nation cowering behind burglar bars and fretting about our fate. Remember that the last we had seen, just before the news blackout, was marauding gunmen moving their barricades outward from Tivoli, as if to suggest they were trying to take the city, against a backdrop of burning police stations.

In that scenario, the media tried to provide the information, but such information was often flawed. This was not unexpected, as anyone who understands the business knows. Some blatant errors were made, I believe, the most telling of which was the elevation of the ‘unconfirmed reports’.

One major radio newscast even led off with an unconfirmed report that ‘Dudus’ had been captured, without any suggestions that the usually rigorous attempts were made to check it. Let’s face it, unconfirmed reports do nothing useful for anyone. One can’t make firm plans on the basis of such reports. In a climate of uncertainty, the unconfirmed reports risk reducing us to the level of the untrained. The unconfirmed report is to be used only when officials won’t confirm and the reporter has complete trust in his/her source.

Further, one TV newscast began with an opinion that, again, was not grounded in any fact. And the opinion did not come from anyone in authority or involved in the combat zone.

I wouldn’t be Spike if I did not point out the wrong use of ‘security officials’. One newspaper report said that three ‘security officials’ were killed in the incursion. The reporter meant ‘security officers’. I don’t believe the person who told me heard reference to ‘military excursion’.

There was as well a bit of naiveté in some reports which left the impression that it is possible to have a nice clean ‘war’; where no innocent is harmed and without a hint of human rights or other abuses. Violence is an ugly and nasty affair.

Still for all, when I saw some of the far out coverage by the foreign press, I took heart that our performance held up reasonably well. Although I continue to be amazed by the fact that the foreign journalists still seem to be able to get footage and information that we can’t get. For example, the footage of masked gunmen openly showing their guns.

In respect of our electronic media, TVJ/RJR/JNN started out well. They had the best, if not the only, footage of the burning police station. But CVM-TV, after a woefully slow start, rapidly caught up and surpassed TVJ. I’ll always remember that excellent interview by Andrew Canon with the education and national security ministers from “an undisclosed location” overlooking the city’s night lights. Their interview with Edward Seaga was also the most comprehensive.

Nationwide demonstrated that it still has pulling power as it had one of the most listened-to newscasts throughout the debacle. Both The Gleaner and Observer did pretty well, using their longer lead time to clean up any of the reports carried by the electronic media.

Arthur Hall, Daraine Luton and Gary Spaulding of The Gleaner can take some kudos from their coverage on the dangerous streets of Kingston, while Kimmo Matthews, Corey Robinson and Paul Henry stood out for the Observer.

The Online Observer boasted it had overtaken The Gleaner’s for the first time as it became the most visited Jamaican website. Congrats to Karyl Walker, the online news editor.

Send comments to The Spike at desal@cwjamaica.com

Desmond Allen, aka The Spike, a 26-year veteran of journalism, is a past president of the Press Association of Jamaica, founding general secretary of the regional Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) and founding editor of the Jamaica Observer.