EDITORIAL

We are only the messenger

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

It is a good job that shooting the messenger is only a metaphor otherwise Cayman Net News would be full of holes. Being in the business of news of course means that we are very much used to being metaphorically shot at.

Criticism of the media when it offers up not so good news to its readers however is not unique to the Cayman Islands.

It is worthwhile reminding everyone who reads our newspaper from time to time, that bashing of the press solves nothing.

Just because the message they bring is not one the Government or any one else for that matter wants to hear, does not mean the message they bring is not accurate or important.

Attempting to suppress news or put a spin on it may be the business of Government. Our business is to report what happens - the good, the bad and at times even the ugly.

There is no doubt that we will be criticised for reporting in this edition that a young tourist was attacked by a moray eel at one of our most famous tourist attractions.

We have been criticised in the past for putting armed Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Officers on the front page and as we were again last week. We have been criticised by Government on too many occasions to mention and told that we are not credible by the Leader of Government Business.

We have been criticised by the Government’s Chief Information Officer for asking questions and we have been criticised by the Chairman of the HSA for reporting facts.

Our journalists are derided at CIRO, (Cayman Islands Recovery Operations), press conferences for asking when or if the remaining debris will ever be cleared or if the MC Restoration contract will ever be made public.

Reporters have already been heckled at political meetings and are likely to receive much more of that before the end of the campaign.

None of this however alters the fact that Cayman Net News is not responsible for the crime, the problems at the hospital, the shortcomings of Government, the complaints about MC Restoration or indeed the moray eel attack – we simply tell our readers about these events.

We do not make the news - we simply draw attention to it rather than ignore it.

If information given by Government appears to us to be incorrect or short on facts we investigate that information further.

If hospital staff come and tell us that there are problems with the country’s health service we follow-up on those complaints and if a child is badly hurt at a tourist site we cannot pretend it did not happen.

A problem ignored is not a problem solved and if the press as well as Government or the health services or the community at large, ignore important issues or bury their heads in the sand and hope these problems will go away - we are all going to be sadly disappointed.

We live in a country where the prevalent culture is not to rock the boat but sometimes the boat needs to be rocked if only to get the water out that is coming in through the holes - and someone has to do it.

Like it or not, the news you read on the pages of Cayman Net News is to the best of our knowledge, as a result of our thorough research, the truth as we have found it to be. We have no vendettas or campaigns against any specific organisation.

Our one and only goal remains and continues to be to report what we believe to be the truth and in the public interest without fear or favour.
And to all our readers who support us in our endeavours to be what we are – the Cayman Islands’ news leader, we remain eternally thankful and we say we have only just begun.

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