With the news of Cayman Islands premier, McKeeva Bush’s arrest circulating all over the Internet, the local media has a responsibility to report only what we know as factual.

It is hard not to resist the urge to get a one up on our media competitors and say “our sources” or “we have been told by a reliable source”, etc. and then give out the “titbit” that is probably true but is also often not. If you don’t name the source of your information it really is not worth a dam. It borders on conjecture and that is the reason I write Editorials.

Editorials are my opinion and that’s all they are. You can agree or disagree. The only hope is that someone at least reads them and gets the brain cells thinking. Often I do not want to know what you are thinking.

I am lucky I have Editorial control on the Comments we get as you will soon realise I have a lot of names that are not complimentary.

The main problem with “our source” information is it is not official and even if true there is probably a very good reason the official channels have not given it out.

With the world watching us at this moment any such titbit is taken up and reported elsewhere as “truth” because it has come from a good source – the local media where we obviously know what is going on.

A case in point is one media house named the second man, who was arrested on Tuesday (12), in regard to the importation of explosive substances without valid permits. No official confirmation of same nearly 24 hours later. On a radio talk show the presenter gave out that he had heard from a source that the premier was stepping down. Five hours later there has been no official confirmation.

By the time this Editorial is published it is quite possible the two media houses are correct but it doesn’t alter the facts – at the time they made those statements it was conjecture unless they at the same time announced their source. I am sure they don’t want to reveal that information!

This media house has received “reliable information” that the premier’s arrest was ordered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. You will notice that titbit has not been added to any of our news stories on the subject of the premier’s arrest.

What I do say is that it is no time for gloating and if you have a personal “hate” against the premier it is not the time to post such comments on the blog page. Amongst the few decent and well written blogs are a million others that should not have seen the light of day let alone been placed for the whole world to read. None of them does this country any good and these same individuals who have written it are the first to blame the government of the day for the lack of overseas investment.

Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to these persons that the Cayman Islands does not manufacture nor mine raw material to sell abroad. It is not a self sustaining country. It relies on banking and tourism as its main sources of income. It is relying on various large building projects to commence and investment for us to get out of the giant hole in the ground we have dug for ourselves.

With an announcement of the premier of this country being arrested for corruption, amongst other things, and 90% of the bloggers out for his blood, what message does this tell the rest of the world.

As I pointed out yesterday, the Chamber of Commerce release, penned by the President, Chris Duggan, was excellent and made a positive out of a negative. The PPM leader, Alden McLaughlin’s was also encouraging and I give him full marks for his paragraph, “I am confident that the law will take its course and we must give the authorities the opportunity to complete their work unimpeded. This is indeed a period of uncertainty for our country but we must remain calm and trust in the system and the Rule of Law.  It is designed to deal with and ultimately resolve matters such as this.”

As Leonard Dilbert said in his release as the premier’s Chief of Staff, “First, there is clearly a need for a strong reminder that in our common law jurisdiction, criminal investigations follow a certain due process. In the present case, we are at the first stage in that process, the stage at which there is a suspicion of a criminal act or acts having been committed, and those suspicions are being investigated by the police.

“The next stage, is for the findings of the police to be submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will make a determination as to whether those findings will support criminal charges being laid. It is only if that determination is made in the positive, that charges are then filed, and in due course a trial would take place. Until tried and convicted, the accused person is deemed to be innocent of the charges.”

Correct.

However, if the premier had stepped down immediately he was aware an investigation was being conducted by the RCIPS against him, then this uproar and potential damage to these islands would have been avoided.

And the world would not have been watching us with eyes as big as saucers and mouths baying for blood.