TV coverage of Hayes Court handover lacking

THE EDITOR: On March 28, the Government handed over Hayes Court, one of the Magnificent Seven buildings around the Queen’s Park Savannah (and the home of the Anglican Bishop), to the Anglican Diocese on the completion of extensive work to restore the building. Prime Minister Rowley delivered the feature address at the formal ceremony.

When I tuned in to the three television stations later that evening to see how they covered the event, I was appalled at the reports done by two of the stations, in particular, and was left with the impression that the stations went to that assignment to cover the Prime Minister’s address only, ignoring everything else, without even giving a reason for him being there.

Additionally, answers to several of the "five Ws" (who, what, when, where, why) were missing from their reports so that one was not told where the reporting took place, when it took place, who or what was involved, why the Prime Minister was there, what the event was about, etc.

To recap: Hayes Court, a magnificent building and tourist attraction, was in dire need of repair and the Anglican diocese and the Government worked in partnership to effect the long-needed repairs. That having been done, the Government was handing the building back to the diocese. Everything in the TV news reporting should have flowed from that standpoint.

As it turned out, the Prime Minister made remarks in his feature address that editors probably considered to warrant lead-story treatment; and there was absolutely no problem with that.

However, no context was given to Dr Rowley’s remarks in the TV reports on two of the stations, while, in the third case, one had to wait until way into the story and after the clips of the PM’s statements to find out the occasion at which he was speaking and where it took place, for example.

One station in particular had nothing to say about anything other than the PM’s speech. In fact, as a viewer I was hard-pressed to know what the story was really about, such was the paucity of information to give it context, as many of the “five Ws” were not answered.

Rt Rev Claude Berkley, the Anglican bishop, spoke at the ceremony and told of the church’s efforts to get the renovations started, but his remarks were ignored in the reporting by two of the three stations. In fact, no mention of the church’s role was made. In some cases we were not told that and where Hayes Court was.

I have been quite unhappy for some time about the quality of news reporting and news reading on radio and television, in particular, but the coverage of this story has really shown the dire need for proper training for those involved in news reporting and preparation.

The time is long overdue for those at the head of media houses today to pay attention to more than just the profits and really invest in the training and supervision of their news and other on-air personnel.

There is no point in bragging about which station has the best programmes and most viewers when the product is lacking in so many areas.

VERNON A ALLICK

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