Three months after the government released 80 people from the ZNS Network in a controversial restructuring exercise, ads running on the Parliamentary Channel declare that the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB) is now seeking to hire reporters and other employees.
ZNS still appears to be critically challenged and the public has a front row seat to witness whether the recent restructuring would indeed result in an improved operation.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham cannot coast forever on the fact the he liberated the airwaves after he first came to power nearly 20 years ago. It is perhaps why the administration has taken the action it says would lead to improvements at the state-owned corporation.
When Ingraham initially became prime minister, media-wise The Bahamas was in the dark ages after decades of the ZNS broadcast monopoly.
Many years of mismanagement and inappropriate intervention by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) — which has no moral authority to lecture anyone on what has happened at ZNS — left many Bahamians misinformed and pretty much beholden to government for whatever scraps of information it would offer about its achievements.
As far as public transparency, things have gotten somewhat better in the years since.
Politicians still use ZNS as a tool for propaganda, asserting their own importance and efficiency as often as possible.
It seems as if the politicians’ view is that the primary function of ZNS is to show how much they are doing for the very people they ask to pay for the state broadcaster.
