The Tribune

AT A press conference yesterday, Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly Dion Smith sought to disparage the reputation of this newspaper. He made four specific claims.

In his first allegation, Mr Smith said The Tribune never made an attempt to reach him, or his attorney Wayne Munroe, prior to publishing its lead article of September 12, entitled “Deputy Speaker in Racism Claim.”

The Tribune takes issue with this statement on two grounds.

First, while Mr Smith is correct in stating that The Tribune did not attempt to contact his attorney, the reason was that the substance of the story had nothing to do with the particulars of the case before the courts – which concerns a maintenance fee dispute – but rather with allegations that Mr Smith engaged in certain verbal altercations.

Second, The Tribune actually made numerous attempts to reach the Deputy Speaker, using both office lines and cellular phones, without success.

Other journalists at yesterday’s press conference confirmed that they were also unable to reach Mr Smith over the past few days.

The second issue for Mr Smith was that no reporter’s name was attached to the story. He said the fact that no journalist took credit for the story was yet another reason to cry shame on The Tribune. He did not explain the reasoning behind this view.

In fact, there are a number of reasons why reporters do not attach their names to stories.

In this particular case, the story was constructed from a number of documents filed with the Supreme Court, which were divided up amongst reporters for transcription with an editor providing the structure after the fact.

No individual could therefore rightfully claim responsibility for the finished product, but Mr Smith can rest assured that if any one on the news staff could have, they would have. No one is hiding from him.

At the same time, it is difficult to see how a name would have made a difference, as the story is nothing more than a straightforward transcription from court documents, the contents of which are easily verifiable and available to the public.

In any case, if Mr Smith feels he must place responsibility for the story on an individual, the name of the publisher is printed quite clearly on page 4 of each issue of The Tribune.

The fourth issue raised by Mr Smith was that the article was “one-sided and inaccurate”.

As has already been stated, the story was taken with absolute accuracy from court documents that are part of a live case.

According to Bahamian law – as Mr Smith should well know as a practising attorney – comment on anything that might become evidence in the case is strictly prohibited until the matter comes to an end.

However, as stated above, The Tribune did attempt to contact Mr Smith for comment on issues not material to, but arising from, the case – for example the future of his political career considering the allegations hanging over him, the truth or falsehood of which he will have to argue through the courts.