The Tribune

By CELESTE NIXON

Tribune Staff Reporter

cnixon@tribunemedia.net

SEVERAL union executives are agitating for action to be taken over the recent shake up at the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas, The Tribune understands.

As the changes within the ZNS newsroom officially took effect yesterday, sources inside the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union say former reporter Clint Watson is a BCPOU area vice-president – an executive position – and as such, should not have been removed from the news team without consultation.

President of the BCPOU, Bernard Evans yesterday confirmed that a union executive cannot be moved out of a department without consultation, according to the union’s industrial agreement.

Mr Evans said he has been out of the country on vacation and would like an opportunity to “find out what has transpired” before further commenting on the situation at ZNS or the union’s position.

However, inside sources say several senior officials under Mr Evans plan to demand that action be taken according to union rules.

It has been claimed that recent staff changes within ZNS, which are a part of the company’s restructuring exercise, were politically motivated and amounted to “victimisation”.

While not addressing claims of victimisation directly, earlier this month executive chairman Rev Dr William Thompson said that ZNS’s restructuring was designed to make its television programming more appealing to the public and regain the viewing audience it had lost over recent years.

With regard to the shifting of newsroom personnel, Rev Thompson suggested ZNS was attempting to bring fresh faces to the fore in order to enhance its nightly news product.

“In order to bring a fresh focus to news, several staff adjustments will be made including new hires to replace those persons reassigned to television production and programming,” he said.

Management had met with the affected staff members individually on August 16 to advise them of the impending adjustments.

ZNS will not terminate any of its staff, nor will staff suffer salary reductions or benefit changes as the government-run radio and television entity undergoes restructuring, Rev Thompson added.

In a earlier interview, however, one insider said: “No matter what they claim, I believe they are targeting people perceived to be FNMs. In the case of Clint and Shenique, it’s just because they covered the FNM rallies.”

Another source said: “Isn’t it ironic that everyone removed had been assigned to cover that campaign?”

These major changes took place yesterday, as according to sources within ZNS, as many as six senior journalists – including prominent personalities Clint Watson and Shenique Miller, as well as news director Beverly Curry – have been reassigned to make way for new personnel.

As of yesterday, Shenique Miller, Clint Watson, Syann Thompson and Carla Palmer were transferred to local programming. Instead of news, the employees reportedly will now be responsible for creating television shows and programming.

Beverly Curry has been moved to Head of Research.

While it was made clear provisions would be made for their new posts, sources at ZNS said the former reporters were left standing around for hours yesterday with no new spaces provided for them and their old former desks occupied.

Eventually, a sympathetic manager allowed them to sit in his office until the end of the day.

Julian Reid, a previous employee of ZNS and the brother of the PLP’s public relations co-ordinator, has been rehired and will be in charge of local programming.

News reporter Andrew Knowles, a former Jones Communications employee, is the first of many “new, fresh faces” to be hired, sources say.

Andrew Burrows, the former PLP webmaster, was also expected to begin his new position as executive news director yesterday.

With no one being laid off at ZNS, and a number of new people being hired, it is unclear by how much the once over-staffed Corporation’s budget has grown.

On its debut last night, the new-look ZNS news broadcast was beset by a number of minor glitches and technical errors.