Media too soft on the PM
Dear Editor,
Since the election of the People’s National Party to government and Portia Simpson Miller’s selection as prime minister of Jamaica, many negative performance-related issues have come up involving the Government and the media has, for whatever reason, refused to criticise the PM on those issues.
Many important economic issues which warrant the PM’s comment has been ignored and the media have not pointed them out.
She has been given a free ride to do as she wishes while the media continues to regard her as sacred, so to speak. What is tragic is that she has not recognised the importance of regularly speaking to the country on governmental policy and issues and tends to hide from the people of this country.
The media has not effectively criticised the PM for the Government’s plethora of faults and mistakes made over the past three years, giving them free rein over the period to the country’s detriment.
On the other hand, the media constantly and sometimes unfairly lambasts the Jamaica Labour Party and its leader, Andrew Honess, although the party is not in office, and I dare say shows up the biased way in which the media sometimes operates in the country.
I challenge the media to wake up if it is sleeping, throw out the biased way in which it has been operating against the JLP and begin to constructively criticise the prime minister and her Government, when so warranted, in the direct interest of the country. All forms of the media have a fundamental duty to be fair, honest, probing, and professional. The media has an important role to play in this country. Do that job!
Robert Dalley
Montego Bay
robertdalley1@hotmail.com