ELECTRICITY consumers criticised Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) after the company announced an additional charge will be added to their monthly bills. The Tribune was out on the streets yesterday to ask the public what they felt about the adjustment to their bills via an extra charge. Sherwaine Arthurs, consumer, said being charged an additional fee is not a good feeling. He said: “We haven’t received any positives from BPL. The service is still not good, when you look at the entire country, we are still having outages in different points and time. We are no longer in the summer months it was cool and yet still we are having power outages.

THE official Opposition in the Senate will contest Kay Forbes-Smith's dual roles as Senate president and lead coordinator of post-Dorian recovery efforts in Grand Bahama, according to Fred Mitchell. The Progressive Liberal Party believes it is improper for Mrs Forbes-Smith to simultaneously preside over a legislative body and work for the executive, particularly now as the Senate debates a disaster management bill. Mr Mitchell, leader of Opposition business in the chamber, said: "What we plan to do is similar to what happens when you bring a vote of no confidence against the speaker of the House. The issue is this: suppose when I speak in the Senate I say hurricane relief in Grand Bahama has been a disaster and it has been a disaster because of her role in the recovery? The rules now say you cannot attack the presiding officer unless you bring a substantive motion. So where does that put me? Must I censor myself because she's sitting in the chair?"

The Bahamas Press Club 2014 finds it disturbing that in as many days, the freedom of the Fourth Estate of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is being attacked by the Speaker of the House of Assembly the Hon Halson Moultrie.

The depth to which the Speaker has drawn the Speakership of the House of Assembly is shameful, in his labeling the reports in the credible newspapers of The Bahamas “yellow journalism.” Mr. Moultrie should also be careful in his threats to the media “to either conform or be gone”, because in a few short years (2022), those words could rebound and not in his favour.

He could very well be gone from the House of Assembly and the Speakers’ chair and the media will still be here.

Yes, Mr. Moultrie, the press does need Jesus, as does everyone else, including you.

HOUSE Speaker Halson Moultrie accused media in the country of “descending” to a certain level, adding it was an issue that needed addressing. He did not clearly explain what he meant, but told House of Assembly members that “fake” and opinionated stories had been published online and in local newspapers. Earlier, he openly rebuked a Nassau Guardian reporter seated in the House gallery for taking photos of member of Parliament Chester Cooper, who was contributing to debate on a bill to exempt fees for replacement documents lost during Hurricane Dorian. Speaker Moultrie then ordered the reporter’s cellphone be turned over to a House clerk and the images deleted. “In the gallery, the reporter - it is against the rules of this House and that has been explained when we had the disturbance in this House - for any reporter to use their cellphone in this chamber and to take photographs or videos in this chamber without the approval of the chair,” Speaker Moultrie said, interrupting Mr Cooper’s contribution.