GIVEN the very disappointing paucity of regional media coverage of the nine-day eleventh Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA), currently being hosted by Suriname, the Annual General Assembly of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), now taking place in Guyana, can hardly avoid enlightening the region’s people of the dilemma it faces in servicing the needs of its own 24 constituencies across the Greater Caribbean.
CARIFESTA is often readily described by the region’s print and electronic media as what successive host governments are fond of describing as our “premier cultural festival” for showcasing the creative talents and skills of the diversified cultures and art forms usually on display.
The pitiful reality, however, is that both government and the  private sector have been revealing declining commitment in contributions to sustain this visionary project that had its genesis 41 years ago in Guyana.

Negative consequence
A major negative consequence of this attitude is the denial of even reasonable coverage by the print and electronic media, particularly the latter, in providing live broadcasts of at least the opening and closing programmes, with some subsequent recorded highlights in between to their regional affiliates.
The core problem is lack of financial sponsorship to help enable the CBU to complement its own limited resources for the benefit of its network of affiliates. These, incidentally, include some well established electronic enterprises (radio and television) owned and operated by private and public sector enterprises within CARICOM.
In a telephone conversation I initiated yesterday with the CBU’s Secretary General, Patrick Cozier, while a working session was taking place at the Guyana International Conference Centre, he shared the disillusionment of and disappointments being expressed by colleagues in both the print and electronic media.
According to Cozier, a recurring problem for appropriate coverage in the staging of CARIFESTAs that surfaced within a few years after its historic inauguration in Guyana, is that host governments, as well as leading media enterprises, do not make budgetary provisions “in preparation for media coverage, while a comparative few do so on an ad hoc basis”.

CBU’s challenge
I inquired whether the CBU’s management themselves may not also be at fault in ensuring coordinated CARIFESTA coverage involving the Community’s governments (possibly via the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown) and, additionally, in tapping the resources of leading private sector enterprises (I have in mind ‘One Caribbean’ conglomerate as a primary example); as well as energising its own 24 affiliates to be forthcoming in contributions?
Cozier’s response—having left the meeting to take my telephone call—was that the CBU’s current 44th annual General Assembly would be addressing various aspects of  this and related problems. He said that a statement from the Assembly would reflect the consensus of participating delegates.
Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse gave the firm assurance in his address at the opening of CARIFESTA X1 last Saturday: “We are dedicated to position this (year’s)CARIFESTA as a world renowned hallmark festival of Caribbean culture and artistic excellence that unites the Caribbean, excites all its people and (also) generates economic benefits…”

CPBA and CMC
In the meanwhile, it is to be hoped  that the CBU, for all its claimed commitment, does not at this time of spreading economic crisis slip into a state of coma like the once very high profile and committed Caribbean Publishers  and Broadcasters Association (CPBA).
Even, that is, as the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) continues to struggle, against the odds, to make its impact in providing daily a relatively impressive package of relevant news and views.
However, as CMC is in its operations with very scarce  resources, the reality is that, with the exception of the introduction of its limited broadcast ‘Caribvision’ programme, today’s CMC seems a shadow of its former self, the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), which existed for many years, thanks much to dependable foreign funding.
Perhaps the big corporate names and high profile entrepreneurs in private ownership of the regional media in CARICOM, may yet wish to surprise us about their commitment to find creative ways in overcoming obstacles currently standing in the way of both CBU and CMC, in improving the spread and quality of regional coverage of developments and events—including, of course, CARIFESTA.