“I must say, off all the arrogant statements Fred Mitchell’s ministry has put out on this whole immigration mess this one was the only one that demonstrated actual diplomacy. It was late again, of course, but the right message was send.”

Noelle Khalila Nicolls

Facebook post

20th December 2014

Without being overly redundant, the credibility of the Fourth Estate is predicated on journalistic or editorial independence; its ability to not only be independent and dispassionate in the reporting of news, but to seem to be independent.

Noelle Khalila Nicolls breached that sacred tenet with her rant on facebook in light of an article she authored that was published in the Jamaica Gleaner. Her facebook post was in response to a press statement released Saturday afternoon by the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration in the wake of an allegation of sexual assault by a female detainee from Jamaica. In the statement the Ministry notified the public that a senior immigration officer was placed on administration pending the outcome of the investigation female detainee.

Grammatical errors aside, if Ms. Nicolls had these strong and uncontrollable negative feelings about the Minister and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she should not have written the article. If she does not support the government, its policies and is incapable of separating her distain for the government and its policies, she should not have written the article. If Noelle Nicolls’ Jamaican extraction (her mother, who runs the crisis center is Jamaican) conflicted her national loyalty to the point where it prevented her from objectively deporting herself in a public platform, then she should have had the journalistic integrity to walk away from writing the article. If her emotional ties to the FNM were so strong that she could not help herself from throwing a public political jab at the PLP government (‘late again’), she should not have written the story. With these obvious personal conflicts between her views and feelings and her professional responsibility as a Fourth Estate gate keeper, why is she even a journalist for a newspaper of record? This Nicolls character is not independent. It is this editorial independence that makes journalistic freedom possible. The freedom deepens democracy and maintains the credibility of that great institution.

I am curious to know if any editor or media personality cares to comment on the behavior of this Nicolls character. Suffice it to say, if she reported for a reputed newspaper like the New York Times or Washington Post, she would be relieved of her duties there for unethical behavior. Nobody who has read or reading her articles going forward can trust her editorial content because of her grave error in judgment. If her News Editor, Managing Editor or the Publisher winks, nods and turns the other way, then readers must necessarily question their journalistic ethics and overall commitment to the tenets of the Fourth Estate.

From a policy standpoint, and to add insult to injury, this unseemly character is openly bashing the very government who has given her at least two substantive contracts – one through the Ministry of Tourism and one through the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival. Apart from this not making economic sense on her part, how could this government trust her to effectively execute their public relations and marketing campaigns involving the country’s number one industry? Not only does she not support the policies of this government, she is unable to contain the disdain she has for this government. She is a risk not worth taking. On this score, the government’s policy interests will be better served if they enlist the services of a person or persons who actually support their policy initiatives and actually want them to succeed. I offer the government this quote from the late great Notorious B.I.G: “If you don’t know, now you know…..”

On the face of it, Noelle Khalila Nicolls is bad news on both fronts: she is bad news for the Fourth Estate and bad news for the government. She is a double wammie at best.

Bahamas Scoop