Commentary

A grave misunderstanding

JAMAICA IS A strange place. Only in Jamaica could the head of an organisation say that certain information put out to the public was 'misinterpreted' and the person or persons who disseminated that information not be punished or at least censured.

However, that is what happened just last week. The Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) said that the police hierachy had taken the decision that murder figures would no longer be made public on a year-to-date or month to date basis. The reason given - there was some link between the publication of these figures and the crime rate.

They added that figures would now be released quarterly. This was evetually changed to weekly.

So, there was a big outcry from the media and each of the country's three daily newspapers carried reports on the new procedure. The Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) also said that they would be seeking a meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Francis Forbes, to clarify and or seek a repeal of this new procedure.

Afterwards the police high command switched gears and said that everything would be back to normal and figures would now be available to the media upon request; written requests from the public. Commissioner Forbes the police had never taken the decision to prevent the media from getting these figures in the first place. "It was a misunderstanding" he was quoted as saying.

A serious one indeed. The kind of misunderstanding that makes the police look a) stupid and b) disorganised. Clearly the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing or in this case thinking because a completely different message than the one which was intended was received. Following this disgrace, how can the CCN's information be trusted from here on out?