Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis stood by statements he made on Monday when he called on the local press to be sensitive to how they report on crime in the country. Davis spoke with ZNS News following an Ash Wednesday service at Christ Church Cathedral on Wednesday.
Speaking about the travel advisory issued by the United States in January the Prime Minister said, “if we had moved from level 2 then that would have been an alarm for me. We have not moved from level 2 and tourists are still coming. The only challenge is it may have a spin off effect of them not wanting to come out of the hotels and that’s what were working on.”
Davis also expressed interest in meeting with members of the media for a discussion on his view on the reporting of crime and its impact on the reputation of the country. Explaining the comments he made on Monday Davis said, “I was not dictating. I was making a comment, an observation and I asked them that they should also take a look at how other news carriers in other jurisdictions carry their crime report. And we have examples of it and its unfortunate that they spin it that way.”
The Prime Minister added, “there’s no misunderstanding, the press was present they heard exactly what I said. Now I respect the sanctity of the free press and their ability to report and inform our citizenry and I highlighted that in my talk. I was not telling them what to do I was just asking them to consider what they do and how they do it.”
Davis says the press has to take into account the common good.
