ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — President of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Hyginus ”Gene” Leon has told regional broadcasters that communications have and should play a strategic role in promoting social justice and holistic development.

Delivering the feature address at the 54th annual general meeting of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) here on Monday night, Leon sought to explore the role of the fourth estate in the 21st century as guardians of social justice in small developing societies.

He argued that if there is acceptance that social justice exists when “all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources” wouldn’t it be appropriate to declare that there cannot be development of a nation without social justice of its people.

“Indeed, social justice promises change, increased access to rights and dignity, and maximisation of the potential of a people,” Leon said, adding that the theme of social justice is fully aligned with the CDB’s advocacy of a holistic systems approach to development.

He said the region’s premier financial institution advocates for two key principles to underlie all policies aimed at influencing behaviours for advancing development trajectories, namely sustainability, based on strengthening resilience, and inclusivity, based on narrowing inequity.

Leon told the regional and international broadcasters that in some developed countries, the role of the media is so highly valued that it is enshrined in the constitution.

“While it is under attack in many of those same countries and media practitioners have been branded ‘enemies of the people’, thankfully we have not reached that level of dogma here in the region.”

The St Lucian-born economist said that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shown that inequalities among populations are driving the tensions that are seen and reported upon in the region.

He recalled a 2021 UNDP report that states that regardless of decades of progress Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) “remain the second most unequal in the world and countries in LAC exhibit higher income inequality than those in other regions at similar development levels”.

Leon said that this statement begs the question, so what are these inequalities and how can they be deconstructed and disseminated to a weary audience tired of living the reality of the statement.

He said the media landscape has always been replete with courageous men and women who have placed their beliefs on the line and their very lives at risk, to advocate for the rights and dignity of others.

Leon said that while there have been international situations, the Caribbean region is replete with stories of journalists who covered stories often at their peril, recalling the work of the Trinidadian journalist, Jones P Madeira, who had been held captive when a group of Muslim men sought to overthrow the Trinidad and Tobago Government in 1990.

“Today, we are at that point in our history where we need to decide what’s important for our future and how do we share this message to grow? How do we revive the spirit of these pioneers?

“Some may declare, and probably correctly, that many media houses have highlighted some of the ills of society, but I would argue that media reflects the context in which it exists. What is the obligation of Caribbean media in the current development crisis that confronts us? “

Leon said to be clear, the media landscape has evolved, away from government-owned to mostly private owned establishments and that the global economic, social, environmental, and political landscape has seen swift and intense shifts.

“In the last three years alone, the region has seen a global pandemic, economic shocks, and a struggle to return to the path of development goals and resilient prosperity. In small, vulnerable states, Caribbean media are particularly important to support relief and recovery efforts as well as disaster mitigation.

“But I fear the industry is not doing enough to educate and inform its audiences on various platforms about the multiplicity of challenges and changes that are and will continue to impact lives and livelihoods. Today, I’d like to ask what is the media’s moonshot project that will attract the interest of our people and be a call to action for behaviour change?”

He said two areas of interest come to mind namely crime and misinformation.

“On any given day across the region, we would be hard pressed not to find a chronicling of rising crime and violence. What is missing, is greater analysis into the causes of these crimes and the ripple effects across other sectors of society.

“I propose seeing violence not just as an opportunity to rush to social media first with pictures and text — the usual concept of ‘if it bleeds it leads’. Also, we may ask shouldn’t the media share the responsibility of promoting social justice and thereby development by assisting in reducing systemic tensions that arise from social inequities?”

Regarding misinformation and disinformation, Leon said this is an area that has the potential to truly set back the development trajectory.

He said in December last year, Public Media Alliance (PMA) published an action plan to combat misinformation and disinformation for Caribbean media workers that included the need for more regional research and analysis to combat “disinformation, media literacy, and trust in news media”.

He said in order to solve a problem, there is need to identify the issue and commit resources to put an end to it.

Leon said that the development of artificial intelligence (AI) will make the harnessing of misinformation and disinformation even more urgent and has implications for the future of the media industry.

He said the challenge is to harness the research capability and access that AI produces while using the human thought to engineer value-addition to the output produced by AI — a win-win situation.