Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Colin Williams, has warned that the Internet provides the opportunity for people to abuse the power of the media. Delivering the feature address at the two-day Caribbean Media and Communication Conference on Wednesday, Williams said the unbridled power that the Internet places at the disposal of people was one easily susceptible to abuse.
"There is no real obligation on persons to be accurate, fair, balanced, thorough or indeed even truthful," he told journalists and media workers from the English-speaking Caribbean attending the conference.
The seminar was organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organisation (Unesco), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM). Williams, speaking on the topic-21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers-said the fact was it was so easy for false, inaccurate and misleading information to be published and circulated on the Internet. A report on Cana yesterday reported Williams as saying: "We have also seen the irresponsible and illegal practices of persons, all in a quest to satisfy the yearning of those engaged in the social media.
"For example, as unbelievable as this may sound, as contemptuous as it may appear, there was a situation where a lawyer, of all persons, took photographs in a courtroom and posted them on Facebook. "This demonstrates how irresponsibly some persons conduct themselves. But there are those who would condone such conduct, by dressing it in the fig leaf of 'freedom of expression.'" Williams, a former journalist and media owner, said the absence of any proper system for monitoring provided not just a platform for freedom of expression and democratic governance but a real possibility for injustice and anarchy. He said he was confident that while the pessimists were getting ready to sound the death knell of newspapers, they would be proven wrong.
Williams said media owners and managers would therefore have to reconfigure their formats to appeal to, attract and retain the younger people, in particular. He added: "This of necessity will require that the traditional media adopt and include the many positives that the 21st century media offer. "It is clear therefore that the new frontiers and new barriers from the 21st century media must give way to new possibilities and new allegiances. "The potential of and possibilities thrown up by the new media will have to be embraced and incorporated in the formats of the more established media." He told the conference it was difficult to contemplate and imagine how people managed to live without Facebook and Twitter or more generally without the Internet, adding: "There are those who may go to church without their Holy Bible or a hymn book but they would definitely not forget their Blackberry at home.
"Such is life in the 21st century. "Anyone can become a reporter. All that is needed is access to the Internet. An untrained and uninitiated person can easily transmit information and reach as many persons in a way that was once reserved for those possessing the elaborate infrastructure to do so. "To take it to its apparent logical conclusion: No longer are persons going to be dependent on reporters and journalists and reputable sources for their information, because they would be able to access the same information through their social media, through the network they are linked into." Williams said if the scenario was correct "then this paints a gloomy picture for the future of the old or traditional media.He said the recent events in north eastern Africa and the Middle East had been credited to and attributed to the power of the Internet.