Case studies


Chris Gollop




Securing DEIOCRRCY




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 Nation, recently interviewed the
 now retired Harold Hoyte on the
 state of the media in the Caribbean.

Let us begin with a look at the ..n ild of the
newspaper industry in the English-speaking
Caribbean over the past three to four decades.
What role if any would you say the industry has
played in ensuring there continues to be flour-
ishing democracies across the region?

I think we have to divide the English-speaking
Caribbean into two sectors. There is the more
established media in the quote/unquote larger
islands like Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and
Barbados that have a long history ofjournalism
and then there are the spectra of journalism in
the smaller islands like St Vincent, St Lucia, St
Kitts etc. In the larger countries I think we have
seen a maturing of journalism in terms of its
ability to recognize its role vis--vis develop-
ment of the country and the balance between
providing critical support for the Government
and recognizing the traditional role of being
the voice of the ordinary man on the street and
to highlight the problems facing the country. I
think we've matured in that sense.
In the case of the smaller islands what we've
seen is a tremendous increase in the number of
mainly weekly newspapers with some of them
having now acquired their own printing presses,


which give them a sense of independence. I
think that these newspapers are going to play a
significant role in the development of democra-
cies in the Eastern Caribbean in particular in
years to core since they can now immediately
put issues on the front burner and governments
will be able to dialogue with people a lot more,
which in my view will help to strengthen
democracies of the Eastern Caribbean.
So I think that over the last three or four dec-
ades we've seen tremendous growth that will
certainly enhance the democracies; and will
provide both government and people with a
platform for the exchange of news so I'm very
optimistic.

When the Internet burst onto the scene there
were concerns among newspaper editors world-
wide that this would have a serious impact
on the viability of the newspaper industry. In
the Caribbean however, the industry continues
to flourish. However, do you think that with
wider access to the Internet, that we may yet
see a decline in the industry, particularly now
that blogging has become so popular in recent
times?

I don't think the newspaper industry should
feel threatened once it responds in the right
way. In many respects editors have to find ways
to ensure that newspapers remain an essential
commodity. The challenge is to make sure that


the product that we produce responds to the
immediacy of every issue, every day and no
longer accepts the traditional attitude that we
are here mainly to report the events of the day.
We have to refashion the newspaper. The prob-
lem is the reluctance on the part of the managers
and the leaders of newspapers to make that bold
decision and refashion and reshape. You would
need to throw out the entire concept of how a
paper is formulated today and ask yourself: "Is
this thing that I'm producing relevant to the key
consumers of today and if it isn't how can I
change it?" Not only the format, not only what's
presented but also the way it is presented. For
example, traditionally the front page carries
the most important news item of the day, but
invariably by the time the readers go to sleep the


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