Elections and the media connection

Though the political anniversaries that signal the onset of more intense electoral activity in the Caribbean aren’t fully due until next year, the hustings appear never to have faded into the background providing gratuitous leeway for developmental agendas.

In most instances, such as ours, the campaigning never ended; together with all associated instincts for division, conflict, and a lack of cohesion.

Note, that in 2025 there can be as many as nine elections in our region, including sharp contests right here in T&T, Jamaica, Suriname, and Guyana.

There are also expected to be contests in St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Belize, and Anguilla. Haiti was always a doubtful starter, even when now exiled prime minister Ariel Henry promised polls next year.

We shall see how that unfolds now that a Transitional Presidential Council is in place (following some remarkable work by Caricom) and the domestic and external games to undermine the Council’s influence and relevance have already been launched.

It has been clear that the relationship between media performance and the credibility of electoral outcomes can always be assumed.

This applies everywhere else. In Sierra Leone as a Commonwealth observer last year, for instance, I was assigned specific responsibility for examining media coverage of the electoral process there, and while there are significant differences in institutional landscapes, the role of journalists remained key to how the process unfolded.

It can be said that ensuing events in that country have hinged heavily on the quality of coverage of prevailing, lingering conflict by domestic, regional, and international media.

In Haiti, at this moment, there is the real threat that the collapse of credible, independent media will serve to reinforce the already powerful influence of a hugely compromised public communication landscape.

In the process, critical concerns related to health, food security, the provision of social services, the promotion of peace, and the brittle status of marginalised groups persist outside the frame of consistent, professional media coverage. In this context, media performance can become a matter of life and death.

Last week, at a meeting of global press freedom and free expression groups in Berlin, I joined with ACM President, Harvey Panka, in asserting, among other things, the urgency of ensuring the viability of existing independent media outlets in Haiti. This is proving to be a rather tall order, as worst-case scenarios are not always easily defined.

It is not always understood that the silencing of journalists is achievable by means other than violent, deadly attack … as we all know in other necks of the Caribbean woods.

Violations of independent reporting occur both through rewards and penalties. There is a concern, for example, that state advertising can be, and has been, used in the Caribbean as a tool to achieve the objective of bringing media enterprises in line with compliant narratives. Corporate entities also employ such methods.

In the context of elections, I have been an advocate for media enterprises to agree to transparent accounting requirements when it comes to political campaign spend by political parties – much of which is absorbed by media companies.

This is not universally supported within the industry, but I believe it can form part of a best-practice model when it comes to media practice at times of elections. There is also need for a wholesome, enlightened discussion around social media.

The feelings of many practitioners and advocates on such matters form the basis for a number of interventions with which I have been associated over the years.

For example, through the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers’ (ACM) Election Handbook for Caribbean Journalists, published in 2009 and edited by Lennox Grant and myself, there is guidance on the professional and ethical conduct of media enterprises and their journalists to assure devoted vigilance and to insulate themselves from claims of bias.

Nobody believes such an injunction meets a perfect state of affairs. Media audiences are, especially through their engagement of social media, becoming far more capable of detecting deception in the form of mis and disinformation. But not always.

There is still a lot more work to be done to meet the deliverables of media and information literacy.

Social media engine rooms run by political party operatives in T&T are already up and running and, in many cases, are easily recognisable. Their role in either ensuring or undermining the benefits of democratic practice is open for debate and discussion.

Professional journalism confronts a stern test as elections approach. Our democracy relies on its successful navigation of the challenges.