Prendergast: Remain vigilant in keeping press freedoms
Published:Thursday | May 4, 2023 | 1:13 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
DR PATRICK Prendergast, campus director at The University of the West Indies, Mona – Western Jamaica Campus, has encouraged media practitioners to remain vigilant in keeping press freedoms from being destroyed or erased and to not be afraid to stand with international bodies in the condemnation of the killing of journalists.
He was delivering the commemorative lecture of the first J. A. Lester Spaulding lecture luncheon held at RJRGLEANER Communications Group on Lyndhurst Road in St Andrew yesterday.
The event coincided with World Press Freedom Day, which is observed annually on May 3. This year’s theme is ‘Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights’.
Prendergast, who framed his presentation under the theme ‘Freedom of the Press in Jamaica’, highlighted the media’s commitment in being trustworthy, credible, accurate, innovative and for playing a role in advancing democracy.
Given the recent killings of Haitian journalists Ricot Jean and Dumesky Kersaint, who were reporting on the rise of gang violence afflicting the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, Prendergast stated that local media professionals should join in the public disapproval of these occurrences.
To better understand and appreciate media’s role in communication and the democratic revolution of society, and its function of giving voice and being a catalyst for social action, Prendergast stated that individuals needed to “look beyond the obvious distinctions between print, broadcast and film” to other distinctions in media such as business and media for development.
He expressed a wider need for an understanding and appreciation of the link between independent media and media freedom from political and financial interference, which was a critical element of Spaulding’s legacy.
He reflected on how far Jamaican media has come in keeping the citizens in the know and aware of the happenings within their country since the nation’s Independence in 1962,
While Jamaica has consistently ranked in the top 10 of the World Press Freedom Index, Prendergast stated that more ought to be done in ensuring quality of the supportive infrastructure, which included levels of training and education and specific standards for enlisting as a media professional.
“There ought to be established conditions to be regularly met for remaining a media professional,” he said.
Jamaica, this year, has fallen in its rank by 20 places to 32 of 180 countries. In 2022, the country held the rank of 12.
This significant drop, Prendergast said, should result in individuals pausing to ask, “what is happening?” as it was particularly concerning, “especially when we consider the humongous drop in the legislative index. So, I say to us, look at the report, look at the indices and see where there may be something there to follow through (on),” he said.
In another area of discussion, Prendergast declared that journalists would have to continue to operate in a world with an overwhelming number of ordinary people, who are given ease of access to new technologies.
New media content creators have no care about tenets of journalism
Prendergast argued that “many of these new media content creators, influencers, information generators themselves, have no care about the tenets of journalism; ethics, legality, the elements of news, proximity, responsibility, credibility, the importance of context (and) the agenda setting functions of news media,” but that citizen’s journalists would never go away.
He said that most of whom are generating “in the moment” information for consumption were feeding into the instant gratification of people’s realities and anxieties.
Quoting from his colleague, Dr Corinne Barnes, lecturer at the UWI’s CARIMAC, Prendergast stated that it was a kind of reporting that individuals had to create content that may not be otherwise revealed and goes far beyond the reach of traditional journalism.
Also known as participatory journalism is the act of an individual or group of citizens who are involved in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and other forms of information.
He, however, noted that it was a core part of what makes for freedom of the press, “but we must be ever mindful of the point, purpose and the limits of the constitutive norms that provide protection for that freedom”.
Gary Allen, chief executive officer of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, stated in his remarks that studio one was a place where numerous activities took place with Spaulding, who is a former managing director and chairman of the group.
Spaulding died in 2017 at the age of 76. His career in broadcast media began in 1965 and he became chairman of the then Radio Jamaica Group in 1994.
“He was always a youthful, vibrant thinker, looking at how the industry will stay vibrant, will stay relevant and always ensuring that we are independent enough...and can pay your way,” Allen said.
Former Governor General of Jamaica, Sir Kenneth Hall, who was a friend and colleague of Spaulding, stated that he and Allen had been working on ways to honour Spaulding for the past three years as he was a “towering figure” in the world and field of journalism.
He continued that he was greatly influenced by his dignity and vision of what Jamaica should be as an independent country. Hall further stated that Spaulding always wished for Jamaica’s press to be on a comparable level to any other media across the world.