It was a masterstroke by all those responsible for the People’s Business on Sunday night on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with moderator Rosemary Alleyne.
They were able to bring together journalists from other media houses in Barbados onto one common ground, which was CBC.
Those who represented the various media houses were journalists Kent Jordan (CBC), Wade Gibbons (Barbados Today), Geralyn Edward (The NATION) and Jewel Brathwaite (Barbados Advocate). The only media house missing was Starcom Network – was it a case of the Jews not mixing with the Samaritans?
The discussion dealt with financial matters, especially the recent downgrade of Barbados’ credit rating by the international rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
Speaking on the political and economic implications of the S&P downgrade was Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler, who was in the hot seat and he did a very good job dealing with the media. The experienced journalists were very outstanding during their questioning of the minister.
Minister Sinckler showed during the quizzing that he was on top of his ministry’s financial matters and knew what he was speaking about. He was no pushover for the journalists, who had some well thought out questions. Mr Minister, please take a bow!
I was also very pleased when the Minister of Finance defended Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell. I think that it is very dangerous to be attacking the Governor of the Central Bank and the professionals who work there.
We must not forget that Dr Worrell is an expert in his field and by attacking him, we are attacking the integrity of the Central Bank.
Finally, I would hope that CBC can host more programmes that will bring together the other media houses.
