Ken Gordon slams Manning, media

One of the Caribbean's most respected media executives has said Prime Minister Patrick Manning was wrong to go a radio station to complain about comments made by two broadcasters during a newscast. Ken Gordon told broadcaster Shelly Dass Manning was out of line.

Speaking on the television program "The Big Story" on TV channel CNC3, Gordon said, "The Prime Minister was entirely out of order to have done so."

The veteran publisher/broadcaster and former chairman of the Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) added that the prime minister's conduct was inappropriate. "Mr Manning knows what proper procedure is and he knows it was clearly intimidatory to go to that station."

But at the same time he was highly critical of the radio station for what he said was a lack of professionalism, noting that the two broadcasters were wrong and should have never commented on an issue during a newscast. "Whatever their views were, that’s not the way to present news...It was unprofessional,” he told Dass.

Gordon warned that such behaviour by radio hosts is dangerous and suggested some measure of restrictions for radio stations saying they cannot be allowed “to run unbridled without any form of restriction. You can’t allow radio stations to carry on and do nothing when they go to extremes.”

Gordon, who was a cabinet minister in the Robinson NAR government, said, "When a radio station behaves badly—and they do it frequently now; it has become the norm—they should be called in, they should be given a warning or two warnings. But at the end of the day, action should be taken.”

He blamed the Manning administration for not being on the ball on this matter. “This Government has chosen to do absolutely nothing about all the excesses for the longest while," he said.

He said it doesn't matter who the audience is, a radio station has a responsibility to guard against abuse and so does the government. “The airwaves are the responsibility of Government and Government has a responsibility to ensure that they are not abused.”

Gordon said, "Anybody who purports to be a broadcaster should be expected to conform to certain standards. If they do not conform to those standards, they should be made to understand that there are going to be consequences.”

But he felt that suspending the two employees was an extreme move by the management of the station. “To go to the extent of suspending people on the basis of what was clearly a misguided and unqualified attempt to intimidate them was wrong.”

Gordon suggested that the proliferation of radio stations in the country is part of the problem and an "even greater crime” than Manning's visit to the station. And he blamed the government for allowing "so many stations to go unbridled without any attempt to pull them in when the behaved excessively."

He also addressed the specific issue and responsibility attached to reading a newscast. “You don’t play around with that. And you don’t make fun about people in it. That’s absurd. And that was entirely out of place in my view.”

Gordon also slammed Energy Minister Conrad Enill for saying, "Nowhere in the world is news reporting as bad as here in T&T.”

He said the minister's statement was "most irresponsible", describing it as "excessive and it is stupid. Clearly, Mr Enill could not have meant that." He closed the matter by saying "It’s not a statement worthy of any discussion. It’s simply not true.”