Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. James Fletcher has indicated that steps are still underway to standardise the media in Saint Lucia.
Thus far, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has solicited comments, suggestions for improvement, and expression of concern on a proposed Draft Broadcasting Authority/Services Bill.
Dr. Fletcher said he is not a big fan of government involvement [in the] regulation of the media and wishes the media could regulate itself.
“There are many FM stations, many television stations operating in St Lucia,” said Dr Fletcher. “They are all competing for a very small market share and I think that has caused some of them to be very aggressive in their programming; to take some risks that…to try to be ahead of the pack and unfortunately that has happened in an environment that has not been regulated. So, the challenge for us now is to try to put in place some sort of regime. Personally, I would like to see the media regulate itself. I am not a big fan of heavy government involvement or heavy state involvement in media regulation because sometimes there is a tendency, a possibility of an overreach”.
Dr. Fletcher says he hopes to see the piece of legislation go to Parliament soon and that consideration will be given to comments and suggestions on the Bill.
“I think we are at the point now where we should be able to do some cleaning up with the comments we’ve received so that we can take it to the next step and I really would like to see some legislation going to Parliament.”
The legislation, according to Dr Fletcher, may not go before the House of Assembly before year ends but he hopes that it could early next year.