In the past two-and-a-half weeks The Bahamas has been awashed with negative publicity internationally, and in one instance the local news media have been blamed for “irresponsible reporting”. In the other instances no blame has yet been attached.
After it was determined that the birds at Inagua died from something other than avian flu, the Minister of Tourism was quick to lambaste the local media for, as he claimed “spreading false news” about the possibility of the bird flu virus being present in Inagua. He talked about the millions of dollars the ministry had to pay its public relations specialists in the United States to repair the damage, which could have been avoided if the reporters and editors here had crossed all their Is and dotted the Ts.
But why should the local media be blamed for reporting that there were a number of then unexplained dead birds in Inagua and the – Minister of Agriculture himself had said bird flu could not be ruled out and that inspectors were going to the island to examine the birds to ascertain the cause of death and whether “the H5N1 virus was present.”
All the local press did was to report what was said by the officials and what was happening. Whatever spin was put on the story in the international media should not be cause to beat up on the Bahamian press, because regardless to what was eventually determined to be responsible for the deaths, the birds were in fact dead.
The second instance was the alleged beating of a Miami television journalist by a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer, which got widespread news coverage in South Florida and which also led to a bomb threat at the Bahamas Consulate in Miami. There was no monetary value placed on that adverse publicity nor was it determined whether it had caused the country losses in cancelled tourist reservations.
And worst of all is what transpired as the United States and the Cuban community in South Florida sought the freedom of two Cuban dentists incarcerated for 11 months in the Carmichael Road Detention Centre. In two weeks The Bahamas was given more international negative exposure than it had attained in two years.
Two US Congressmen threatened to move legislation to bring economic sanctions against the country and demonstrations were mounted at the Port of Miami in an attempt to dissuade cruise ship passengers against travelling to The Bahamas. In fact one South Florida group says the demonstrations will continue in the hope that it will bring about better conditions at the detention centre.
How many millions of dollars will it cost the Bahamas government to repair the damage that was caused by all the negative publicity generated by this saga? Will the minister of tourism tell the Florida media how terribly wrong they are for reporting negatively on what has happened in The Bahamas?
We dare say he will not because he knows very well that his calls would change nothing and would only generate more “unfavourable publicity”.
Editorial from The Nassau Guardian
