January 16, 2014

Dear Sir,

When letters are sent to the newspaper to be published we are required to follow the rules and regulations in order to be accepted. I, therefore, make every effort not to be personal, and not mention names. However, with that said, I believe it is very important to point out the fact that the use of the airwaves is also, if not more so, a very powerful tool. Whether on television or radio, I can assume there is also a ‘code of ethics’, and penalty for those that ‘abuse’ his/her capacity to broadcast over the airwaves? With this belief in mind, there are two people that I strongly believe are ‘misusing’ their capacity to broadcast, and are blatantly biased, prejudiced or simply misinforming the public.

One is a radio talk show host, and the lady responsible is extremely biased, and will promote any and everything to demote the ruling party of the day, to the point of hanging up or ridiculing anyone with an opinion differing from her view or anyone in some cases who actually have accurate facts. Number two in my view is just downright immoral, and, in this case, nothing BUT hateful. I refer to the television station here locally permitting a ‘religious’ minister to transmit what is clearly ‘NOT’ religion, but prejudice, and extremely race-related. His platform is based on intolerance, disrespect for human rights and actually incites violence. I have never heard such negativity on the radio, and as far as this ministry on TV is concerned; it’s hard to believe that we allow someone to speak in this manner in this day and age.

If we as a community want to make Bermuda a better place, and remove conflict and divide, I would strongly suggest The Broadcasting Commission consider removing this form of showmanship off the airwaves.

SYDNEY

Paget