By Gerrino J. Saunders

Many members of the media were caught by surprise this week after learning that
the popular weekly cabinet press briefings may be a thing of the past.
On Monday Italia Clarke Press Officer in the Office Of The Prime Minister (OPM)
sent a notice to media houses informing that moving forward the  cabinet briefing
on Tuesday’s and the OPM press briefing on Thursday’s will be combined into a
single, more comprehensive weekly briefing event to promote efficiency.
Free National Movement Chairman Dr Duane Sands in a voice recording on
Tuesday accused the Davis Administration of engaging in “old school PLP
censorship.”
He said, “As the wheels fall off this runaway new day train, another restriction is
being placed on public access to information.”
Dr Sands reminded of the “fanfare” in 2021 surrounding the introduction of the
Cabinet and OPM press briefings by the former Press Secretary in the Office of the
Prime Minister Clint Watson for new and improve access to government.
However, he said, “Then they scheduled one cabinet press briefing and one OPM
briefing per week, well them days are gone and Clint Watson, well he gone too.
But recently with all the gaffes, misspeaks and the contradictions, the PLP
recognizes that they need to control the narrative; nobody say nothing that’s off
script.”

The statement from the OPM went on to say that getting answers to questions by
the media is very important to the government and that the press office at the OPM
is committed to providing timely responses throughout the week.
Dr Sands accused the government on spending millions of dollars on public
relations that he says is not working, and now the government is trying to spoon
feed information to the public on what the Davis Administration is or is not doing
in their best interest.
“This new day crew have already spent millions of dollars on PR and media
consultants, and that don’t seem to be working,” he said.
“So this change is a part of a new official strategy, now every conversation with a
minister or a parliamentary secretary would be scripted, it will be choreographed;
the public will be drip fed official polling data that says what the government
thinks the public ought to know,” he added.
Continuing Dr Sands said, “By the way the Government of The Bahamas has also
decided that they will no longer allow any media houses other than ZNS or BIS to
attend certain official functions; well blow me down, this some pre 1992 old
school PLP censorship.”
Dr Sands concluded by saying, in the FNM they say that the truth shall set you
free.
He asked what is the Davis administration afraid of? “Maybe they fear the Fourth
Estate may ask them some questions to ensure that our democracy, your
democracy is protected.”
There was no cabinet press briefing or OPM press briefing this week. It is unclear
when the first combined cabinet and OPM press briefing will be held.