THE Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) said yesterday that the documentary aired last week on American television about Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, could be part of a conspiracy to paint West Kingston in a bad light.
Speaking at a press conference at the Tivoli Gardens community centre, JLP Leader Andrew Holness and Member of Parliament for West Kingston Desmond McKenzie both noted that the producers of the documentary failed to seek any response to the allegations made in the documentary from either the party or the MP.“The universally accepted good tenets of journalism were not followed. It appeared to be more of a soap opera kind of treatment of a very serious issue,” Holness said.McKenzie noted that Minister of National Security Peter Bunting “appeared 23 times in 43 minutes” of the documentary, making disparaging comments about West Kingston and the JLP.At the same time, General Secretary Dr Horace Chang noted that Bunting had referred to Tivoli Gardens as a “criminal republic”, and described the minister’s use of the term in the context of the documentary as “irresponsible”.The press conference was called by McKenzie to allow residents of his West Kingston constituency to express their views on the May 2010 security forces incursion, as well as the Government’s decision to hold a commission of enquiry into the incursion, the A&E Biography Channel documentary and statements made by Bunting in the documentary.Holness said that while the American TV channel was well within its rights to make the documentary, he was concerned that no known efforts were made to get a response from his party, despite the types of allegation made against the party.“For the record, I was not consulted and I am not aware of any member of the party being consulted,” he said.He said that the “universal tenets of journalism that should have been observed were that “if you are going to make a comment that is potentially damaging to someone, you would, at least, allow them a right of reply, and for balanced journalism, you would want to investigate both sides.“The fact that that was not done, to me, erodes the credibility of the documentary and, possibly so, is a conspiracy to paint West Kingston in a particular light,” said Holness.McKenzie, meanwhile, said no request was made of him to participate either. He said that if the area was a “republic”, as suggested by Bunting, “they (the producers) couldn’t have come in here and do the documentary without permission”.Holness said the “real travesty”, however, was that “a member of the Jamaican Government would have aided the development of a negative reputation and perception of Jamaica, in agreeing to participate in the documentary, and volunteering to characterise citizens of Jamaica in the way that it was done”.Journalists are escorted by soldiers into Tivoli Gardens days after the security forces’ operation in May 2010.View the original article here
JLP sceptical about US documentary on West Kingston
