St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has stepped up his attack on local media houses in a recent sitting of the National Assembly and during a series of government-sponsored Town Hall meetings ironically called “Good Governance and Accountability for Prosperity.”
United States Sen. John McCain responding to an attack in the media by US President Donald Trump noted that dictators “get started by suppressing free press.”
At a sitting of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly on February 16th, Dr. Harris used that session at which no Public Business was listed on the Order Paper, to lash out at the mainstream media.
He accused the St. Kitts and Nevis media of allowing political prejudices to interfere in their reporting of the news.
“When you see them reporting and they are editorialising, not reporting facts instead inserting themselves into the news,” said Harris in the lawmaking body.
At a Town Hall Meeting in Challengers last week, Dr. Harris urged his supporters to turn off their radio rather than listen to what he described as nonsense.
“They don’t want to talk about that, they want to talk all kind of distraction. That is why you have to be focused and that is why I said to you already and they did vex and they kick up. But me nah study them. Do not listen to the nonsense that many of them are speaking on radio programmes. Do not bother with them and rather than let your pressure go up over the nonsense, my advice is turn them off!! Turn them off!’ shouted Harris, who made indirect reference to a female reporter who continues to get his tongue lashing.
“Let the miserable reporter pick up that. Turn them off!!! When people chatting nonsense you don’t vex you spirit, you turn them off!!,” said Dr. Harris.
In August last year during a public meeting in Sandy Point Prime Minister Harris attacked the media and urged persons to stop listen to radio talk shows.
“Stop listen to de nonsense dem that dey a talk. Don’t get yourself caught up in that mischief- that is a distraction,” said PM Harris.
While members of civil society in St. Kitts and Nevis are mute on PM Harris attack on the media, United States senator, John McCain slammed his own Republican President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media noting that dictators “get started by suppressing free press.”
“We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital. If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press,” said McCain.
“And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.”