Media Trust
I have decided to resign from the Media Trust but, unfortunately for the Media, this resignation is nothing unusual or even particularly noteworthy !
The Chairman of the Media Trust is appointed by the Governor and I was delighted to take it on nearly five years ago. The position is meant to be for four years only, but given that we had had a recent change of Governors, it seemed reasonable to continue for a while longer which explains the longer than usual appointment.
My reasons for leaving the Media Trust are therefore simply that I have completed more than my allotted time on the Trust and it is therefore time for someone else to take on the role. It has been an interesting time and a lot has been achieved by the Trust.
With the taking on of FIRS as well as Penguin News, the Trust has had to focus on administrative detail that was not perhaps that necessary when only dealing with Penguin News. This included the writing and agreeing of staff contracts, terms and conditions of employment, an updated staff handbook and the setting of clear policies and guidelines for our local press that should ensure that the press has complete freedom but is also responsible and accountable for what it publishes or says.
There have also been a number of financial management strategies put into place and these have resulted in a profitable Penguin News for the first time ever. The profits all go back into the business and allow PN an even greater independence from Government which is, after all, one of the main reasons for the existence of the Media Trust. The closing down of the government’s print shop resulted in Penguin News being printed by Stanley Electrical and a long-term contract has been signed with them for this. PN also finally went on-line and is now downloaded by over 200 subscribers world-wide on a weekly basis. This is good news as it gets the Falklands message out to a wider audience. Some even say that it is compulsory reading over morning coffee in certain BA households, although why British Airways should be interested beats me !
At FIRS, there is a new management structure in place. Budgetary control and day to day financial management and reporting are now carried out by existing staff who have been trained to do the task. The number of reporters has increased to two full-time, and part-time staff continue to make up a large and important part of the service. Programming changes have been made and there is now far more comment and local news than there used to be. The audience is both active and wide and FIRS continues to be a professionally run and active local and on-line radio station. Staff have been trained both inside the Falklands and outside the Falklands. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the BBC that gave the Falklands significant benefits in terms of free programming – both of speech and music programmes. It also included a technical review which recommended a complete change of equipment to become a fully digitally produced radio station. This has been a large project and one which is just in its final stages now as the studios are due to be refurbished at the end of this month. The result may not make Kylie Minoghue sound any better, but it will make huge changes for those who work within the radio station, making editing of speech and music far easier, reporting a mobile experience rather than a desk-bound activity, and in the future, can result in further improvements to the way in which radio is received around the Islands which will, in fact, make people like Kylie sound much better !
Behind all of this there has been a very active and involved Trust. Most of our work is not apparent, but we have handled many queries from the public – some praise and some criticisms. Where we have needed to question our policies we have either set new ones or revised the existing ones. The result is not easy to gage, but, with the help of advice and experience from both within the Islands and at times from outside the Islands, I feel that we have provided the public with a free press that is accountable for its actions and professionally put together. We have been a very active regulatory body and, whilst the press will never be able to be all things to all people, I believe that what is in place now is well positioned for the future and I wish the Media Trust all the very best and thank both fellow trustees and also all of the staff at Penguin News and FIRS for their help and support during my time in the Chair – it has been both fascinating and rewarding.
