The Editorial Page of Monday March 31st with great clarity shows why people cannot depend on traditional Media Houses for credible information and reasonable news commentary. The Publication’s attempt to discredit the Director of Public Prosecution amounted to not much more than a disastrous witch-hunt.
1) Editorial Points contradicting… well the Editorial points.
For while we accept, and insist on, and avail ourselves of the right that the judiciary cannot be above questioning and criticism, we feel that Ms Llewellyn should take stock.
2) Ms Llewellyn has made it clear that had she the right of appeal, as is now being proposed for some circumstances in Jamaica, she would. That’s well enough. But Ms Llewellyn, unless we misinterpret her utterances, has done more, and gone too far.
3) To be sure, despite her attempt to couch her criticisms of RM Pusey’s disagreement based on law, tone and context betray something deeper, we suspect. For instance, when an interviewer juxtaposed the outcomes of the Spencer-Wright case and the guilty verdict in the Vybz Kartel murder trial, placing the different decisions in the context of class and argued that justice in Jamaica was on trial, Ms Llewellyn agreed that “justice was not served” in the Spencer-Wright decision.
4) Then there was the television discussion program in which Ms Llewellyn pursued her belief that the magistrate had made an error in the law, which is a position she is entitled to hold and declare. What was disconcerting, unless we misapprehended her intent, was the DPP’s reference to two cases on which Ms Pusey had returned guilty verdicts but was overruled at appeal. That appeared to us, circuitous though the effort may have been, a questioning of Judith Pusey’s competence as a magistrate.
Unlike the DPP and judges of the Supreme and appeal courts, magistrates do not have security of tenure. There is no requirement for the convening of high tribunals to remove them from office. In that regard, if the DPP believes that Ms Pusey is judicially incompetent, or worse, she should, and can, properly raise the matter with the chief justice so that the applicable civil-service regulations be activated and the appropriate decisions arrived at. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/
There was a time when this Publication was respected in our country and the greater Caribbean region . That time has passed . Like everything else in Jamaica the standard of Journalism and Editorial objectivity once expected has dissapeared down the gutter of ghettoization , sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. No mention of the fact that a simple project ‚intended to distribute free light bulbs donated by the Cubans to Jamaicans was turned into a cash pot for one member of Parliament. No questions asked about where Kern Spencer and his so-called assistant got all that money they deposited into their accounts on succeeding days to buy high end SUV . No questions or mention of the fact that a single misguided Magistrate hijacked the process and allowed another politician to go free despite the evidence. Why would the Editorial page ask these questions? It can’t ‚because it was the very same newspaper which sold the people on this incompetent Party in power headed by the chief incompetent, Portia Simpson Miller. This Publication has demonstrated it is no longer relevant on topical issues. It’s views now are exactly the dastardly views coming out of Jamaica House. It is a sad day that a once proud Publication like the Gleaner would surrender its Journalistic excellence to become part of a ghetto cult. It is a sad day when a Publication would side with those who do harm to the people, then have the gall to attack those who speak on behalf of the people.