Today is September 1, Day of the Press in the Dutch Caribbean. Despite some past efforts it is hardly observed in St. Maarten, but more in Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire. To be honest, there is not much to celebrate either for local journalists dealing with their daily struggle to cover the news.
That is generally far from easy, operating in a relatively small-scale market, with access to what should be public information often hard to come by. The same can be said about getting answers from ministers and officials except when they make announcements or send out releases.
One of the latter sent out late Sunday (see related story) mentioned that COVID-19 statistics and details will be updated in simplified graphics on government’s website. This was supposedly done “based on many complaints that the numbers were confusing.”
The latter – perhaps unintentionally – might create the erroneous impression that media outlets have not been doing a great job in reporting coronavirus data when they are forced to rely for such on the same government and its agencies. Reporters who try to get it elsewhere tend to find little cooperation from other stakeholders.
Mind you, there is in principle nothing wrong with government using its website to reach citizens or even starting its own radio station as was done with 107.9FM. After all, public broadcasting has a rich history in Europe and many other places.
At the same time, the importance of an independent and free press in its role as society’s watchdog cannot be ignored. It is not for nothing that privately-owned media are still considered a must in true democracies, something elected representatives and the country’s administrators they appoint need to always keep in mind.
That is why the initial exclusion of media houses from the payroll support programme had been frowned on also in The Hague and a similar decision in Curaçao was reversed. The so-called “exemptions” have meanwhile been removed from St. Maarten’s June wage subsidies now in process.
But there are positive examples too of media relations, such as sticking to weekly live Council of Ministers press briefings where at least a few questions can be asked. The daily government information page in the paper and making use of other radio stations for information provision and campaigns fall into that category as well.
Happy Press Day to all colleagues.
