KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Prime Minister Andrew Holness has called on the state-owned Jamaica Information Service (JIS) to continue to be the source of factual information in the public interest.
Addressing the JIS’s strategic planning session for 2024 to 2028, Holness said the agency must ensure that, where there is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public by spreading false information, the facts are presented.
He told the conference that the agency should seek to innovate and use new media to reach more people at the parish and community levels.
“You need to ensure that you have news that is relevant for all age groups, all socio-economic strata of the society, that you are across all media – on television, radio, social media – and that the spectrum of topics that you cover are sufficiently broad,” he noted.
“You must ensure that you have a local and national presence, ” he added, stressing that the news and reports presented must be factual, integrous, unbiased, and non-partisan.
Holness said that the funds allocated for opening a JIS regional office in St. Thomas, which will serve the eastern section of the island, will better enable the agency to widen its geographical footprint.
Parliament has approved J$50.9 million (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) to support the establishment of the office, and Prime Minister Holness said the role of the JIS is even more critical now when unverified and unvetted information exists in the public domain that could pose a threat to democracy.
“A small country like Jamaica can’t take it for granted that this open media space, this open flow of information, does not have an impact on our institutions and how our people think and behave – their outlook, their mood, their aspirations, and how it changes our value system. As a government, we must be concerned about that.
“One way to treat the issue is to make sure that the public agency for information is effective in combatting the unregulated flow of information,” the Prime Minister said.
In his remarks, the permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Ambassador Dr. Rocky Meade, noted that the annual strategic planning session would better enable the agency to “identify and operationalize strategic objectives that will assist with the delivery of critical messages to Jamaicans.”
JIS chief executive officer Enthrose Campbell said the agency remains committed to finding creative and innovative ways to reach people.
“Our job is more than just informing the people; we ought to engage the people, and we have to find new ways to do that,” she said.
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