The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I read where a senior public servant recently hung up on a journalist who was asking a question on behalf of the public, after demanding to know how the reporter got his “private cell”.

If true, it is just further proof that we in The Bahamas need to step into the 21st century and recognise that the people are sovereign and that journalists are their defenders of their right to know. Specifically, senior public servants need to shed their colonial arrogance, learn their place as employees of the people and stop acting like they are privileged members of society.

First of all, I seriously hope that the cell in question was not government issued. If it was, any member of the public, which pays for that phone, has a right to call it whenever they wish. It should be impossible to disturb the public servant’s private time, because he should not be using his publicly-funded phone outside of office hours in the first place. Or his car for that matter, but we see this going on every day.

Even if it was actually the director’s private phone, he remains a servant of the public, which also pays his salary, and as such is obliged to answer questions that are in the public interest. If he finds this too onerous, he should simply tender his resignation and be replaced by a more forward thinking, progressive official.

RICK JOHNSON

Nassau,

May 25, 2018.