The Politics of Information and the People's Revolutionary Government (The 1979 coup in Grenada and the 1983 US Intervention)

• Author: Ramesh Deosaran
• Pages: 581-596

581

THE POLITICS OF INFORMATION AND THE PEOPLE’S REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT

The Politics of

Information

and the

People’s

Revolutionary

Government 1

(The 1979 Coup in

Grenada and the

1983 US

Intervention)

Ramesh Deosaran

Twenty-Six

INTRODUCTION

This is a story of how a revolutionary

government struggles to survive in a

Caribbean environment dominated by

Westminster-type politics and privately-

owned media. This story emerges from the

political violence of the 1979 coup in

Grenada and the United States’ (US) 1983

‘intervention’ which followed the murder of

Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several

other government officials.

During the last 25 years, the Caribbean

Community (CARICOM)2 have been

experiencing mounting tensions which, in

many cases, are related to influences

emanating from outside countries, e.g. Cuba,

Russia, the US, and the string of unsettled

countries in Central and Latin America.

These tensions have usually erupted from

sharp ideological differences, at the centre

of which existed a sustained struggle over

‘freedom of the press.’ The successful coups

in Grenada (1979) and nearby Suriname

(1982) and the murder on October 19, 1983

of Grenada’s Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop3

have produced the most dramatic

manifestation of these tensions.

This paper examines the bitter,

prolonged confrontation which took place

between 1979 and 1983 between Bishop and

his People’s Revolutionary Government

(PRG) in Grenada on one hand and the

Privately-Owned Media (POM) in the

Caribbean. This examination is done against

the background of similarly fierce

582

CRIME, DELINQUENCY AND JUSTICE

communication struggles in Guyana, Jamaica and other Caribbean states.

The underlying theme is that the POM has little or no tolerance for leftist or

revolutionary groups which attack private property and which fail to uphold the

traditional requirements of the Westminster model of Government, for example,

a multiparty electoral system and the separation of powers.

A CARIBBEAN REVIEW

The years 1978-83 have witnessed severe tensions between Caribbean

Governments and the POM. For example, both the ruling People’s National

Congress (PNC) led by the late Forbes Burnham in Guyana, and the People’s

National Party (PNP) led by Michael Manley (when he ruled in 1979) have been

engaged in protracted confrontations with the POM. In some of the smaller states,

the governments placed a series of restrictions on the media. In Montserrat, for

example, the government (a budget of just over $13 million) have proposed a

Newspaper Registration and Surety Ordinance (1981) which requires newspapers to

declare full details of proposed operations and lodge a bond of $50,000 with the

government. In early 1981, the Dominican government has had to unleash severe

censorship as a reaction to a coup threat.

In Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados, there have been skirmishes between

the media and the respective governments and while there have been government

complaints of ‘press irresponsibility’ no legislative or serious political actions had

been taken against the POM in these two countries. In fact, the Trinidad and

Tobago Constitution specifically guarantees (Chapters one (4) (k)) freedom of the

press in addition to ‘freedom of conscience and expression.’

Since the successful coup by Bishop’s New Jewel Movement (NJM) against

Eric Gairy’s oppressive and corrupt regime on March 13, 1979, the constitution

and the entire POM there had been quickly disbanded. The PRG’s broken promises

to reopen the POM and call early elections in Grenada evoked very strong criticisms

from the POM across the Caribbean.

Except for Guyana and Grenada under the PRG, the POM in the

Commonwealth Caribbean was fairly well established. There were three major

regional bodies:

1. the 27-member Caribbean Publishers and Broadcasters Association (CPBA)

(including the POM and some government-owned media but excluding

the media in Grenada and Guyana),

2. the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), supported by the CPBA in the

dissemination of regional and international news, and

3. the Caribbean Press Council (CPC) supported by the CPBA as a ‘watch dog’

or complaints against the media.