“CBC cannot only carry his [Parris’] Press conference and that of the Prime Minister, stating that all is well with CLICO, while ignoring everyone else.
“This is an abuse affecting freedom of information and the public’s right to be informed. Above all else, we want Mr Parris to understand that CBC does not stand for CLICO Broadcasting Corporation.”
… Barbados Opposition Leader complains that the CBC news media is protecting the Thompson government and stifling freedom of the press (Nation News: Mottley Calls For Parris To Quit CBC)
BLP Can Dish It Out When In Government, But In Opposition They Can’t Take It!
Poor Mia Mottley and the Barbados Labour Party are crying the blues that the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation is preventing the Opposition Leader from commenting on the CLICO story. The problem as Mottley sees it is that CLICO Chairman (and good friend of the Prime Minister) Leroy Parris is also in charge of the CBC.
We agree with Mottley that this is a terrible conflict of interest and that the government is controlling the news media for political purposes. We agree that there is no excuse for the David Thompson government to behave in such an undemocratic manner.
But let’s turn back the clock a bit, shall we? Remember when Mia Mottley and Owen Arthur were the leaders of the Barbados government?
Take a Trip Down Memory Lane With Mia & Friends…
“So Mia Mottley is calling for justice for BLP supporters. Why didn’t she call for justice for me, when I was editor of the Advocate and was being persecuted almost on a daily basis by the BLP?
The full story of how I was treated by the Barbados Labour Party has not been told but I will do so one day and Barbadians will see what an authoritarian government we had. How we were on the brink of dictatorship because when the press is attacked and bullied into submission, freedom is always in danger.”
… Reudon Eversley as related in BFP’s Former Barbados Advocate Editor Says Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley “Evil As Hell The Lot Of Them”
Mia Mottley Says Internet Blogs, Call-in Shows “Marginalize Parliament”
“In a stunning admission of an elitist intent to repress the rights of citizens to publicly communicate with each other, Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley is calling for regulation of internet blogs and call-in programmes.
As reported in The Nation News (link here), the Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados is calling for changes to our system of government – saying that call-in shows “will continue to predominate” and that internet blogs “marginalize…parliaments and cause disrespect (for the rule of law and institutions that keep our society safe,)”…”
Barbados Opposition Co-Leader Mia Mottley “Electronic International Media Is Dangerous”
Mia wants that pesky uncontrollable news media to be available for the use of the political elites!
To top it all off, Mia is still upset with the lack of government control over that pesky “international electronic media”. Gosh… I wonder who she means by that? Do you think she’s talking about CNN? Nonetheless, whoever she’s talking about – she is desperately frustrated at her inability to control what citizens hear and think about.
… from BFP’s Barbados Opposition Co-Leader Mia Mottley “Electronic International Media Is Dangerous”
BLP Blog Removes Link Threatening Murder Of Journalist
It took seven long months for the Barbados Labour Party to decide to disassociate itself from people who call for the murder and rape of BLP political opponents!
For seven months, Barbados Free Press, Barbados Underground and others have been questioning this shameful and unholy alliance between the Barbados Labour Party and the people who write BFPE and their other five associated websites. How could a legitimate Barbados political party in the year of our Lord 2008 continue to support people who called for the murder and rape of BLP political opponents?
… from BFP’s Barbados Labour Party Blog Removes Link To Website Threatening Murder Of Adrian Loveridge
Owen Arthur’s Strategies For Media Control
When Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur recently warned the country’s largest newspaper to be careful about printing advertisements for the government’s political opposition, he wasn’t doing any more or less than than that grand old expert in media censorship, Fidel Castro. Castro has the art of oppressing journalists down to a science. His thugs still drag off hundreds of people every year for “reeducation” or “disappearing” and the Cuban media never reports a word of it.
But while the Cuban dictator has been ruthless in shutting down opposition or critical media, his two students Hugo Chavez from Venezuela and Owen Arthur from Barbados have learned to use more sophisticated methods to achieve the same goal.
Barbados Free Press 