We need a media that's confident not cowed!

‘The evil men do say or plan is best hidden’! That seems to be the mantra of the Isle of Man government as indicated by the refusal to respond openly and in full to this fairly innocuous request from IOM Newspapers for information on government policy in dealing with the media:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42728&headline=Our%20FoI%20requ...

Howard and by default COMIN (Council of Ministers), do not like an non compliant media as was evidenced by his Tynwald outburst last year which although obviously directed probably primarily towards IOM Newspapers was a general warning to all the mainstream media. Subsequently Howard realised that government was going to far and tried to spin it as more of an attack on social media.

To a certain extent Howards ploy that social media can be nasty works because some of it is very nasty. For example I make no excuses for or pull any punches over the fawning obsequiousness of COMIN and government generally towards the Island’s parasitic business community. I’m not just nasty I loathe and despise them!

However let's take the area of social media out of the equation and you have A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION for any democracy if the MSM (mainstream media) think they are being fingered.

You would think that an open and democratic government would fall over backwards trying to assuage the concerns of IOM Newspapers and the fact that they have not sends a very ominous signal about just how and by what methods this government wants to control news.

IT'S A DISGRACE quite frankly that we have such a vast number of ‘career progressives’ and others that go to make up the government media sausage machine. In a country with a population probably now only about 80,000 you would think politicians and senior civil servants could manage their own news. Its an appalling indictment of their mental capabilities that they can not string a press release together. However if they must have a news machine to shape their utterances let it be open and transparent.

IOM Newspapers should appeal this decision to the Information Commissioner and dependant on the outcome in my view its time to make plans to get the boat because it may show what a squalid little country this has become politically. We’ve thought for years the IOM government was institutionally corrupt it seems now the cat is well and truly out of the bag!

Image: Howard interviewed by BBC Panorama so open but why then do they want the Manx media cowed not confident?

Bernard Moffatt