BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Comptroller of Customs, Rodney Harris, is of the view that media practitioners in St. Kitts and Nevis are critics, and declared that a government’s agency would be the medium for all information coming out of his department.
Harris made this pronouncement during his presentation at a joint Law Enforcement Press Conference held at the Lecture Hall of the Police Training School in Basseterre on Thursday, June 10.
In his presentation, the Comptroller of Customs said things have changed drastically in the Customs Department and they have seen an increase in smuggling activities. He declared that local fishing vessels are actively involved in those activities and noted that he has heard about the smuggling of weapons into the Federation.
Harris added that critics would point their fingers at the Customs Department and accuse it of “internal conspiracy”.
“Now that’s an opinion for the press,” he continued, “and I have a problem with the press because they take matters on that basis that the Customs is involved in a lot of things. And so we find it very difficult sometimes to meet with the press, because of how they want to twist things sometimes.”
Quite recently, it was observed that press releases relating to activities of the Customs Department were disseminated to media houses through the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary, and Harris held no ‘bars’ in giving his reason for this.
“We have an outlet…the government outlet, where we send our information out. And we are satisfied that the truth is in that information. There is no twisting or turning…what we actually want to say to the public goes out. And so, not disrespecting the press, but we ask them to check these web sites where we put our information out to get positive information out from there,” he said.
He spoke of the role of the Customs and indicated the level of trust that exists between his department and the police.
“We have our role to play in terms of the struggle against crime. We have worked with the police department. We have shared information. We had meetings up to the highest level and we will continue to do so. We want to be friends with the police and we want to be trusted, because information sharing is critical. People will only share information with people who they can trust. So, we expect that friendship to grow and to assist in the struggle that we now face.”
In response to the question of why the media should contact the PM’s Press Secretary and not a spokesperson of the Customs Department, Harris retorted, “As I said before, all involved should have that trust among them. If the media is gonna write their own opinion when you tell them something, I find that’s not trust. We feel comfortable distributing to the Press Secretary and I know it will not be a problem for you to get information from him.”
Asked if the Press Secretary is a member of his staff, Harris replied in the negative and quickly followed up with: “That is trusted information, because we decide to send that information”, when told all information that would be disseminated by the Press Secretary would be secondhand.
As media representatives continued their probe to get the main reason why he distrusts the press, Harris said, “I really don’t want to go back in history, but people have to take their own course of action.”
Reporters explained to the Customs boss that the role of the media in a democratic society is to inform, entertain and educate, and it would be a disservice to the public if media practitioners could not get the opportunity to ask questions of the direct source, rather than a medium with secondhand information.
In his response, the Comptroller of Customs said, “That’s our stance. The press been hearing a lot of things and the press say a lot of things even before they verify the information.”
It was also put to him that the media may want to clarify something within a press release and if he would be willing to respond.
Harris said, “We don’t have a problem when you call, but we will tell you where to get it.”
Some of the media representatives left the press conference with the perception that the Comptroller of Customs sees the press as critics.
