The Nassau Guardian is claiming exclusive rights to publish the Wikileaks cables regarding the Bahamas. Today’s Guardian contains stories titled “Inside the Mind of Hubert Ingraham” and “A U.S. View of Perry Christie”.
The cables reveal insights into Bahamas foreign policy, domestic affairs, diplomatic, politcal, economic, social and cutural matters through the eyes of U.S. diplomats. What the Guardian has published thus far shows that most of the information in the cables jives with what pundits in The Bahamas have been saying for years.
The cables expose Mr Ingraham as a confident leader who said he was a contented man and that he had accomplished virtually everything he set out to do. Certain cables refer to Mr Ingraham’s rather clear grasp of Bahamian politics, his uncontested control of the FNM machine and his not so subtle manipulation of the Bahamian political process.
In one cable, Ingraham refers to Mr Christie’s Cabinet as a “collection of ambitious incompetents”.
Mr Christie is characterised in another cable as having “a well-deserved reputation as a waffling, indecisive leader, who procrastinates and often fails to act altogether while awaiting an elusive consensus in his Cabinet”.
The Nassau Guardian says there are some cables they will not release or even discuss. While it is understood why they would not publish cables that would endanger the lives of individuals or expose state secrets, many do not agree with the Guardian’s concerns that the libel laws in The Bahamas, a draconian set of laws created by crooked politicians to protect themselves from scrutiny, should keep them from publishing cables that Bahamians have a right to see.
Rather than publish the cables in their entirety, as Wikileaks and some other international newspapers have done, the Guardian has decided thus far to print snippets supplemented with their own editorial comments. This practice allows them to pick and choose, to publish only the information that they want released, a dangerous practice considering that the goal of Wikileaks is to “keep governments open”.
Some Bahamians are concerned that the Guardian, which is owned by a few wealthy Bahamians, will not publish what average Bahamians really need to know, but will instead publish what is beneficial to the objectives of their owners.
Both major newspapers in The Bahamas have sometimes been accused of failing to publish the news as it would be printed in a country with a truly free media. Both major papers tend to censor or slant news to the advantage of their advertisers or powerful allies, all of whom belong to a small clique of Bahamians who control and manipulate every aspect of Bahamian society.
There is concern that the Wikileaks cables will be used to the economic and political advantage of the Guardian’s owners and not be released as they should be, to inform Bahamians and to help keep the Bahamian government open and transparent.
