Minister attacks media

Minister attacks media

Thursday, May 11, 2006

On 8 May in the Legislative Assembly (LA), Hon Charles Clifford,
Minister of Tourism, turned his attention to criticising the media as
opposed to the Opposition, over a number of issues under his portfolio
saying things were not being accurately reported in the press.

His first attack was levelled at the Cayman Observer, and a story which
reported that some people who had been consulted about new revenue
measures revealed in Budget were now being critical of them.

Mr Clifford said that though there were some areas of disagreement with
these associates, the majority of the revenue measures were recommended
by those people.

He also criticised the publication for an article entitled “Short-term
challenges of the Go East programme.”

Mr Clifford said that he did not mind criticism but said the piece was
“almost inviting confrontation” between tourism operators in the West
and in the East in Cayman.

“We have one tourism industry,” he said and added that pieces like this
thwarted the work of “trying to make sure that we better manage tourism.”

Mr Clifford said he was concerned too about what he described as getting
a lot of “negative press on the Go East Initiative.”

Without naming the publication, he referred to letters published in a
newspaper that were highly critical of the project.

“At least in one case, I know that that individual was one of the first
on the doorstep to find out what opportunities they could have with the
Initiative. But some criticise so they can develop their own projects,”
said the Minister.

Turning his attention to a recent Cayman Net News article, the Minister
said the paper had published an article that he said was extremely
critical of the Government not embracing possible Cricket World Cup 2007
tourism opportunities.

He said that the piece intimated that there had been no discussions on
the matter when he said that discussions started two or three years ago
and the Government had expressed an interest in hosting games.

However, the Government recognised that there was no sporting
infrastructure in place.
“Several meetings have been held since then and, for a country that is
not a host country we have to approach the matter cautiously,” said the
Minister.

“The games are being hosted at the end of our peak season. We have
repeat guests at that time and we don’t want to displace those guests
for a one-off opportunity.”

He did say however that Jamaica, a host country for matches, had
inadvertently included Cayman’s room stock in their planning stages.

He said that discussions would be ongoing with Jamaica “to see what is
available and we will continue to seek any opportunities.”

Mr Clifford also said there was no opportunity taken to ask about the
matter at the weekly Media Briefing by Cabinet Members, and therefore,
there was no opportunity to pass on all the information he just relayed.

However, the Net News piece included a comment on the matter from a
senior Tourism Ministry official after several attempts were made over
many days to contact the Minister and the Permanent Secretary.

Net News said it settled for the Ministry official’s response because
Ministers have encouraged the Media to understand when they are busy and
unable to return calls to speak to other suitable representatives.

Mr Clifford also criticised another Net News piece entitled: “Cayman
partners with Cuba.’

He said, the headline failed to capture other paths being pursued as a
result of discussions he recently held in Europe with the Department of
Tourism (DOT) in London and with the Islands’ Public Relations and
Advertising agencies over there.

He said that at a Media Briefing by Cabinet members he had said that
arrangements with other airlines were possible as well.

Mr Clifford also spoke for the second time since LA sessions resumed in
late April 2006, about press articles concerning the Misener Marine matter.

He said that since he last spoke on 3 May 2006, another Net News piece
appeared, which “suggested” that it was the Port Authority Chairman and
a Misener representative that had met.

He said that this was completely different from the implications in the
first Net News piece, which caused him to say that he had no meetings
with Misener Marine Construction Inc of Florida in relation to proposed
Berthing facilities for the Cayman Islands.

He said it was “entirely possible” that the Port Authority Chairman
could be meeting with Misener because there were other matters they
could be discussing.

On 3 May in the LA Mr Clifford said he had not had had any meetings with
Misener Marine.

“In relation to the timing of the talks – discussions that the Net News
piece referred to as being held “two weeks ago” – the Minister said that
the last time talks were held on the matter were in September 2005,” he
said adding that he met with two companies at the time.

He further stated that neither of the two companies with which he met
were Marine contractors.

The Minister continue to criticise headlines in the press and revealed
his obvious concern with the new Government’s first encounter with the
problem of good and bad spin when it comes to the media.

“We support a free press. It is most unfortunate that we provide so much
information and we end up with so much that does not capture the scope
of the information,” he lamented.

Mr Clifford also described the Government as the “most transparent” –
using the staging of weekly media briefings by Cabinet Ministers as an
example.

“Perhaps that arrangement needs to be tweaked a bit” he said to ensure
that what Ministers say is accurately reported in the press.

“And if we can’t achieve that then we have to look at,” finding some way
of ensuring that the information reaches the public in the same form in
which it is disseminated.

http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000019/001922.htm