Joseph and Boston at loggerheads over coverage of DFP event

Joseph (l) and Boston (r) appear to have interpretations of their communication on the matter

Both parties have given their sides of the story but it is still unclear as to where the truth lies in a controversy of “he said, he said” between the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation (DBS) and the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) over the live broadcast of the DFP’s recently-held delegates conference.

The then DFP General Secretary, Johnson Boston, during the opening remarks at the conference, took DBS Radio to task for not carrying the event live. He explained that while both Q-95 FM Radio and Kairi FM had agreed to a request from the DFP for live coverage, DBS had not responded positively.

“We have here carrying live Q-95 FM Radio and Kairi FM. We try our very best to engage all three radio stations, because as a party we have never had any issue with the media and therefore we got a swing around by DBS and also its manager,” Boston revealed.

Boston said he made several calls to DBS to have the convention carried live, however, he was told that the party had to make available the address of the guest speaker.

He pointed out that, in his experience, no guest speaker will present a copy of their address before it is delivered.“But nevertheless, I never found the manager of DBS, Cecil Joseph, to tell him what we thought,” he explained. “He called me and I said we are having a meeting and we would get back to him.”

Joseph should just admit that he faltered and move on, the DFP official stated.

“I am very disappointed in Cecil and I think he should own up to his responsibility and be a big man and talk the truth,” Boston argued.

However, Manager of DBS, Cecil Joseph, during a radio interview this week, attempted to debunk Boston’s accusation saying his statements were “not totally true.”

“Mr. Boston called me on Wednesday [August 2], when he called me he couldn’t find me, I returned his call,” he explained. “When I returned his call he said to me that he would like DBS to carry the Delegates Convention. I then said to him that we have already made plans to carry live the Trafalgar event.”

Joseph continued, “I said to him, let me speak to the people of Trafalgar, because it (the DFP delegates conference) is an important event,  according to him, so we are going to try our best to see if we can carry it for him.”

Joseph explained that he had a choice between splitting frequency of 88.1 and 89.5 and carry the event in Trafalgar on either of the frequencies and also give the Freedom Party the opportunity to have their convention carried live.

“I then discussed with some persons from Trafalgar I told them there is another event,” he stated. “As a matter of fact I also told him [Boston] the amount of money we were getting from Trafalgar and he told me it’s going to be for about 2 hours, so I told him I will get back in touch with him.”

Joseph mentioned also that he spoke to Boston the following day [Thursday] and told him that a decision had been made to carry the DFP conference live.

“I gave him certain conditions,” he noted.  “I said to him, Boston I know that you are aware of the Freedom Party conditions in payment to DBS Radio, because there has been a condition from way back 1997 where the Freedom Party owed DBS Radio certain amount of monies and so management at the time who made it a condition for the Freedom Party that they would have to make payments of previous balances that they have which they have not cleared.”

He explained further that he told Boston the Freedom Party would have to make that payment available to Dominica Broadcasting Corporation, “and upon that we can discuss”

“He said no problem to me,” Joseph stressed.

Joseph made it clear that he was not going to block the Freedom Party from having their Delegates Convention carried live.

“I will never do that,” he stated. “That is not in me…”

However, Boston, who is now the newly-elected Chairman of the DFP, has countered Joseph’s explanation by stressing that if DBS had really intended to provide live coverage of the DFP event, Joseph would have responded to the several telephone calls that he, Boston, made to Joseph on the matter.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

15 Comments

  1. CARTREATS
    August 11, 2017

    Lets not forget, Joseph is one OF the DLP Henchmen, he would do any and every thing to prevent the DFP And uwp from broadcasting any program on DBS PERIOD

  2. Anonymous
    August 11, 2017

    You know what, best thing is not to listen to DBS anymore because it is one-sided, not as bad as GIS but it is getting there.

  3. CIA Agent
    August 11, 2017

    According to our files, in 1996, the current President Charles Savarin became the leader of the DFP and had presided over the continuing decline of the DFP following the 2000 general election. Shouldn’t he be held partly accountable for debts owed to DBS during his tenure as leader of DFP?

    Imagine a business manager taking a loan from a bank then quits the business to be appointed manager for the same bank which penalizes the business for the loan…and down the “rabbit hole” we go.

  4. Ibo France
    August 11, 2017

    The State’s radio station is not the property of the ruling party, ownership belongs to the people of Dominica. For good and fair governance, certain positions and institutions should be apolitical. The President, Speaker of the House, Election Supervisor and Electoral Office, Government Radio Station(s), these should not be politicized, but they have become the reverential enablers of the governing party’s partisan agenda. Have you ever heard anything complimentary about the Opposition Parties aired on DBS? Only denigrating and disparaging items that are deliberately intended to injure the Opposition. DBS management should hang their heads in eternal shame for aiding in stifling democracy.

  5. Daryl Joseph
    August 11, 2017

    I’ve always in previous comments ask what’s the DFP doing but now that they are back this is not the start I was expecting.
    First talking about 11 seats but no plan yet in getting the country forward and now fighting with DBS over something so silly.
    Broadcast your event Facebook live let your followers know time and page leave dbs alone and save your money. So disappointed just when you think there’s hope you get hit with this same old nonsense.

  6. Just Thinking
    August 11, 2017

    Joseph quotes an outstanding debt of twenty years as the reason to deny the DFP access to DBS.
    UTTER RUBBISH,pure politics and nothing else.

  7. Jonathan St jean
    August 11, 2017

    The Labour Party and it’s surrogates are just dishonourable persons.The radio station belongs to the people of Dominica,yet they lock out the other parties from easy access to the people’s station.Following the 2009 and 2014 elections the Labour Party received reports from the elention observer missions of the OAS and Commonwealth,which called for giving the opposition more access to DBS,and Skerritt promised he would.The buck stops with him and so Joseph can take this course of action because he knows that Skerritt will not hold him to account..Then you hear about dirty linen being washed in public,It has to be washed if it’s dirty.Not even reputable international bodies will Skerritt and his henchmen respect, much less the opposition.This has to stop

  8. August 11, 2017

    This is what Dominica is made of, too many male “RATS” in a hole trying to out do each other, ignorant Black men in positions, they never expected to attain. A brother of mine ,came home to spend some time with family and friends,he invited his friends both UWP and DLP to the FORT YOUNG HOTEL to have some tete-a tete old talk over a couple drinks, to his amazement, he told me , his friends because of their UWP and DLP affiliations refused to mingle with each other, can you imagine that? say what you may, mental slavery exist in its highest in Dominica. When a gov’t is consolidated after all these years, that is the bottomline of what you get, this can never be good for the country going forward.Bob D.

  9. WeNiceMan
    August 11, 2017

    SMH!!

    It’s 2017 and here we are fighting ovet RADIO coverage of an event.

    Where as the rest of the world looks to TV and the web for information, a relic of 1970 (Radio Dominica aka DBS) is still the star in Dominica.

    Sure puts our “development” into prospective.

  10. He said, he said
    August 11, 2017

    Sorry DNO but there is too going on now with our new citizens and diplomats to waste my time reading about “he said, he said” story. All I will say here is Boston has a reputation of being very honest, truthful, and a man of integrity, while Cecil has been involved in several controversies against the president party, car controversy with Peter, the use of DBS vehicle to saga, just to name a few. So in a nutshell Boston I believe and can’t even believe Cecil’s poom

  11. %
    August 11, 2017

    My huge problem with this ruling LABOUR PARTY, a regime that is trying hard to turn this country into a totalitarian state, is the way IN WHICH it manipulates DBS and GIS. They tend to believe that DBS and GIS, belongs to the DLP, and not to the people of the country. Who pay you Cecil? So they can parade poor, elderly, indigent citizens that they have assisted, on GIS, ignoring the fact that they are hurting the pride and dignity of these people. They do this to garner political strength.They can use DBS to spread their lies and propaganda ad infinitum.
    If I had not known anything re how this corrupt DLP regime operates, I would side with Cecil,,, but NO SIR, If I have to believe one of the two, I will go for BOSO’s, side of the story. BOSO has shown to the public at large that he is an upright man, with nothing to hide. Maybe that’s why whenever you see him,he always walks with his head up!!
    THIS DLP IS A HELL OF A BAD REGIME.
    SKERRIT MUST GO
    SKERRIT MUST GO
    SKERRIT MUST GO…

    • KID ON THE BLOCK
      August 11, 2017

      Here goes the MAD MONK! %.

  12. UK Dominican
    August 11, 2017

    Two things:
    – money supposedly owing since 1997, 20 years ago, is a red herring. DBS could either have persued that through the courts or written it off, which I suspect is what happened. No corporation is going to carry an alleged debt like that on their balance sheet for twenty years as an asset.
    – re. submitting the address text beforehand for scrutiny is tantamount to censorship, typical of a totalitarian regime. Period.

  13. August 11, 2017

    Here we go more politics!!

  14. MI
    August 11, 2017

    Boston pay them ppl. Everything for u guys is a controversy. If it was the other party that was owing u guys would have so much to say.

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available