In 2024, the Cabinet of the National Democratic Congress took a deliberate and vindictive decision to pull all government advertisements from REAL FM, a nationally reaching station located on Main Street, Sauteurs, St. Patrick. The reason? REAL FM dared to do what real journalism demands; it criticized the government.
This act of political punishment, later admitted publicly by Minister Tevin Andrews, has plunged the station into a prolonged financial crisis; one that continues to cripple its operations in 2025.
And what was the response?
Nothing.
Not a word from the Media Workers Association.
Not a peep from so-called press freedom advocates.
Not even a concerned murmur from those who boast of defending democracy and free expression.
The silence was not just deafening; it was disgraceful.
But today, that same silence has turned into loud condemnation. Suddenly, the same Kem Jones who lobbied for the economic suffocation of REAL FM is calling for similar treatment against We FM, an urban-based station. And now, magically, the Media Workers Association finds its voice. Suddenly, there is urgency. Suddenly, there is outrage.
So we ask plainly:
Is media freedom only worth defending when the station is based in the capital?
Is silence the standard when rural voices are under attack?
REAL FM, rooted in St. Patrick but heard across the nation, has carried the hopes, struggles, and dreams of Grenadians often forgotten by the center of power. But when this station was targeted, no collective voice rose in its defense.
Where were the protests?
Where were the statements?
Where were the alliances?
Instead, a cruel and historical stigma reared its head; the Country Town Stigma; an ugly prejudice that treats rural districts as second-class, as peripheral, as dispensable.
Enough is enough.
REAL FM is not just “some station in Sauteurs.” It is a vital artery of national discourse. And the decision to starve it of government support; simply for doing its job; is state-sponsored sabotage, nothing less.
So today we ask:
Where are the representatives of St. Patrick?
Where is Joseph Andall, MP for St. Patrick West?
Where is Denis Cornwall, MP for St. Patrick East?
Do they not hear the silence strangling a station in their own parish?
Will they sit quietly while one of the most critical community voices in the north is punished for daring to speak out?
If you are truly representatives of the people, then defend the people’s platform.
We call on social Grenada; the ordinary citizens who know injustice when they see it; to speak up.
We call on civil society organizations, activist groups, and the Grenada Council of Churches to raise their voice, not just for media houses in the city, but for those in the countryside too.
Press freedom cannot be selective.
Justice cannot be urban.
Solidarity cannot skip postcodes.
When the state punishes one media house, it threatens them all. And when media associations pick and choose whose struggle is worthy, they lose all moral authority.
REAL FM has stood with the people; in good times and crisis, through storms and elections. The question is: Will the people now stand with REAL FM?
To the Media Workers Association:
You have failed a fellow media house.
You have abandoned a national voice because of its address.
And now, your selective outrage betrays your true posture.
You do not get to champion freedom only when the fight is convenient.
You either defend all media; or you defend none.
This is a call to conscience.
Let the record show:
· That REAL FM was targeted for truth-telling.
· That St. Patrick’s elected leaders remained mute.
· That Grenada’s media fraternity turned a blind eye.
· And that the people, if they remain silent too, will only empower the next act of political censorship.
Let us be clear:
All Media Houses Matter; not just the ones near the Carenage.
Let Grenada mean all of Grenada; not just the part with high-rises and roundabouts.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”
Proverbs 31:8
