Saint Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet last week embarked on the well-trodden path of threatening to sue local media for alleged defamation on grounds that are at best tenuous.
The latest blatant abuse of political and economic power in this regard stems from a report by Rehani Isidore, a journalist with HTS Television in Saint Lucia, that Britain’s Prince Harry would be staying at the island’s Coco Palm Resort, which is owned by the Chastanet family and run by the recently elected prime minister’s sister, during a forthcoming Royal tour of the Caribbean.
The report in question was based on a press release to that effect issued by the hotel and entitled “Coco Palm rolls out the red carpet for Prince Harry’s visit”,
(Caribbean News Now, September 28, 2016)
Prime Minister Chastanet is playing wannabe dictator by suing this local broadcaster. And it behooves Saint Lucians to fully appreciate this.
The facts at issue are almost irrelevant; because this is not about defamation. It’s about intimidation. What’s more, it’s right out of the dictator’s playbook, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has mastered and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now trying out.
The aim is to silence any voice critical of their leadership, so much so that the press becomes nothing more than a propaganda tool. This, of course, harkens back to the Soviet days of Pravda – the state newspaper that promised “truth” but published little more than lies.
The only question is how far each strongman is willing to go to master this playbook. For example, in addition to having scores of journalists arrested, Erdogan has already ordered the closure of more than 100 broadcasters, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and distribution companies.
All that remains is for him to start ordering hits on particularly irksome journalists. For example, the exiled Russian interior ministry officer Alexander Litvinenko famously fingered Putin for ordering the hit on his “virulent critic” Anna Politkovskaya. She worked for the independent Novaya Gazeta, but was silenced exactly ten years ago today, on October 7, 2016. Unsurprisingly, earlier this year, a British inquiry fingered Putin for ordering a hit on Litvinenko on November 1, 2006.
This is how far Putin has gone in his quest to intimidate and effectively control the press. Erdogan is emulating him. And Chastanet, who was only elected in June, is already imitating them.
But his claim of defamation smacks of a thin-skinned Trumpian (over)reaction. After all, the alleged offense stems from HTS merely reporting facts. Moreover, it reported those facts from a press release the prime minister’s own family-owned resort issued, which related to interest in where Britain’s Prince Harry would be staying when he visits Saint Lucia later this year.
Ironically, I suspect Chastanet family’s self-serving press release highlighted the obvious conflict of interest and gave Kensington Palace pause about having Harry stay at their resort. This would have forced the resort to withdraw the press release and thereby caused the prime minister to feel duly dishonored. But this is clearly no reason to blame the media.
Yet a voluntary on-air apology by the management of HTS, for any embarrassment caused, was not enough for him. Instead, it appears Chastanet wants his pound of flesh from Rehani Isidore. He is the unwitting Politkovskaya-like journalist who dared to present the report that exposed the conflict of interest into which Chastanet’s family was perfectly willing to ensnare Prince Harry.
Specifically, management is trying to cover its backside by prevailing upon Isidore to read an on-air apology, crafted by Chastanet’s lawyers, which chastises the journalist as much as it glorifies the prime minister. How Putinesque!
Meanwhile, nothing betrays Chastanet’s thin-skinned bullying tactics in this respect quite like the fact that he dared not sic his lawyers on the more powerful Daily Express of London. After all, it reported in similar fashion on the same press release.
In any event, Isidore’s lawyers are right to advise against serving himself up as a sacrificial lamb at the altar of Chastanet’s ego. He should force HTS to fire him and then make a public stink of suing for wrongful termination, thereby exposing its management’s cowardice and Chastanet’s pettiness.
Beyond this, Saint Lucians should beware that, if Chastanet gets away with abusing his power to bully this journalist, it might only be a matter of time before he’s abusing it to bully you too.
Not to mention that such political oppression invariably leads to economic stagnation. Exhibit A is the way President Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship has (mis)led Zimbabwe from serving as the “breadbasket of Africa” to languishing as a poverty-stricken basket case.
Related commentaries:
Chastanet…
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* This commentary was originally written for Caribbean News Now on October 7.