The Bahamas Government is “very much aware of the level of discomfort which Bahamians have” about interventions made by American Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship in recent weeks and Bahamians must speak out about their feelings regarding the U.S. Ambassador’s actions, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said Sunday.
“Our ambassadors in the United States would not intervene in the United States in the way this is being done,” said Mr. Mitchell, who was a guest on Love 97’s radio programme “Jones and Company,” which was broadcast live from the Nassau Marriott Resort.
Should the Bahamian Government ask Mr. Blankenship to cease and desist from the kinds of interventions he has been making in recent weeks?
That’s the question that was on the mind of the Foreign Affairs Minister, who was out of town when Mr. Blankenship got into a spat with media representatives over his move to block certain members of the press from an interview with a U. S. Congressional group recently.
When asked to apologize for exercising what some members of the media regarded as censorship, Mr. Blankenship said that the radio boss who asked him to apologize should, “get a life” and pay attention to improving his reporting.
Mr. Mitchell said Sunday that he does not think that the situation has risen to the point where Mr. Blankenship deserves a public slap on the wrist from the Bahamas government.
“It’s simply my judgment that [things] have not risen to that level,” Mr. Mitchell said.
He said, “The fact is that you have an ambassador here who represents the Bush Administration and one must assume that he is acting in accordance with the wishes of his government. I don’t at this stage think that we need to go beyond that. It is clear having spoken to the State Department that that is in fact the wish of the United States Government.”
The general issue is the “manner” of Mr. Blankenship’s interventions, said Mr. Mitchell, who said he wanted to steer away from specific situations that may have questioned the actions of the U.S. Ambassador.
“In a free society, one does not wish to say to anyone that they can’t say or speak or do whatever they wish to do in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” Mr. Mitchell said. “But I also say that Bahamians in a free society ought to make their wishes known about these interventions.”
In response to the criticisms levied against him in the controversy, Mr. Blankenship issued what some Bahamians called a “veiled threat” when he said, “I will continue to look at the manner in which people conduct themselves. And when there are personal attacks, I will not respond publicly to them. I will remember them.”
If Bahamians feel that Mr. Blankenship’s “interventions” were in poor taste, there is a remedy, Mr. Mitchell pointed out.
“Obviously, you could one, make a formal complaint. Two, you could ask for his recall,” Mr. Mitchell said. “But, you see, there are consequences when a government takes a particular position.”
“We feel that the time has come for the government to say something about it,” said the show’s host Wendall Jones. Mr. Blankenship’s advice for the media boss to “get a life” was a clear suggestion to Mr. Jones, who had asked Mr. Blankenship to apologize to media in The Bahamas.
Mr. Mitchell said he spoke to all of the persons who were caught up in the controversy, including members of the media and Mr. Blankenship.
“His response was that exclusives are something which he as ambassador has a right to grant and in fact granted on an earlier occasion to [Love 97],” Mr. Mitchell said.
But Mr. Jones insisted that an exclusive interview was one that is given to one organ of the media.
Mr. Blankenship allowed ZNS and the Nassau Guardian in the interview with the Congressmen.
He, therefore, did not grant an exclusive interview, Mr. Jones asserted.
