ST GEORGE'S, Grenada, CMC:

The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) and the international media watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, have criticised the decision by immigration authorities who gave a Jamaican journalist 24 hours to leave Grenada on the grounds that she had overstayed her time.

ACM president Wesley Gibbings said it is clear that whatever the discrepancies regarding the date stamped on the passport of Tenesha Thomas, the authorities did not employ the prerogative they had to extend her stay.

Immigration authorities had suggested that there had been a mistake regarding the length of stay given to the journalist who had arrived in Grenada at the start of the year on an assignment on behalf of Caribupdate - a regional news agency based in Florida - and operated by Grenadian journalist Hamlet Mark.

Discrepancy

Chief Immigration Officer Jessmon Prince said the expulsion order was issued after a discrepancy was discovered in Thomas' passport. He said while the document was originally stamped August 2, 2008, the date by which the journalist was required to leave Grenada really should have been February 8.

"In this light, and if we have all the required information, the order for her to leave the country can be viewed as a hostile act against her and her news agency for reasons that have to do with the practice of journalism," Gibbings said in a statement posted on the ACM web list.

"There is, in my view, a role for MWAG (The Media Workers' Association of Grenada), the ACM, Tenesha's government and all of us as journalists," Gibbings added.

Gibbings said that the claim that Thomas, a former employee of The Gleaner Company, would have needed a skills certificate was not correct.

ACM said it is of the view that a journalist on a single assignment over a short period of time does not fall under the ambit of the provisions envisaged by the free movement of media workers in the context of the CSME.

"A skills certificate is not required to undertake such an assignment," Gibbings said.

"Use of the skills certificate is not only a function of international treaty (the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas), but something that is recognised in domestic law, harmonised at the regional level. It is a right. Not a privilege."

Certificate

The authorities in Grenada said that the journalist should have been in possession of the certificate before starting her assignment.

Thomas, the chief political correspondent of regional news agency Caribupdate, was scheduled to be on assignment in Grenada until March 1, this year.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders says it wants the Grenada government to provide an explanation for evicting the Jamaican journalist.

The Paris-based organisation said the decision was all the more surprising since the local immigration service had admitted it had made a mistake.

"We are shocked by the plight of Tenesha Thomas for more than one reason. Jamaica and Grenada are linked through the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Common Market which eases circulation of residents from one country to another, as well as extensions of periods of stay.

"How can the expulsion of this journalist be maintained even though it has been admitted that her papers were in order? The incident gives rise to fears that the authorities are using Thomas to mete out unfair treatment to Caribupdate."