Herald Media Partners

The storm-coverage role of ZNS Bahamas and CBC Barbados this year alone, and the recent work of ABS Antigua and Barbuda, DBS Dominica, ZBVI and Radio Anguilla, among others, during Hurricanes Irma and Maria should further reaffirm the still vital part that public broadcasting has to play in this part of the world.  The one thing that public and state broadcasters can assure is free, universal access to a strong signal. The myopic decision, then, to shut down or emasculate pubcasters in the Caribbean region says nothing abou t broadcasting and society and says everything about personalities and politics.  When lives are at stake, a North American/Latin American, 'leave-it-to-the-market' approach is ominously devastating. Even the good ole municipal market, the very crucible of capitalism, is made public and regulated at the 'interest, necessity and convenience' of the public.  Until our leaders figure it out, spare a thought, then, for the region's surviving ...

Hoyte of The Nation (1941-2019) Editorial, Barbados TODAY May 14, 2019 It is not a safe idea in small, independent developing nations such as ours:   the notion of a free press. In what has long been considered the freest black nation on earth, Harold Hoyte might not have made that idea any safer – that remains the people’s job. What he did was make it safe for others to believe in that dangerous idea and to consider it essential, relevant and non-negotiable in a democracy. What he also made safe was an environment in which young, independent-minded, creative adults could practise their craft without having to peer over their shoulders constantly at a looming phalanx of ministers, merchants, lawyers and sycophants baying for their blood if not their pound of flesh. This is the mission of a visionary; such a man was Harold Hoyte, founder of the  Nation Newspapers , without whom it is well-nigh impossible to conjure up additional upstart startups in a democra...