Dear Editor,
I have been wondering lately what has happened to the Government Information Service (GIS) in Dominica.
The reason I have been wondering is because someone wanted some information about what is going on in the government. So naturally I told the person to check the GIS.
Out of curiosity I decided to check what is going on in the government for myself and when I logged on to the GIS website, their “latest news” were written weeks ago. At the top of the GIS webpage a story called “2.8 million dollar water supply commissioned in Delices.” I checked Dominica News Online and the same story appeared and it was published on September 9, written by one Mervin Matthew.
Is this the last time the GIS wrote a news piece about what is going on in the government?
Curiosity drove me further to take a look at other government information services in the Caribbean and to my surprise some, if not most, are on top of latest developments in their respective governments. For example, in Jamaica I realized the Jamaica Information Service has daily news updates. Other islands have basically the same thing.
So this has left me to wonder, where is the GIS in Dominica? There are many important news items going on in Dominica. For example at the agriculture week workshops taking place right now in Dominica, many government officials gave speeches (some good) and we have to haven’t heard anything from the GIS. Isn’t this their job to let the public know what ministers of government say at different functions?
So I am asking anyone with information, what is the purpose of the GIS? Is it one of the ‘job for the boys’ kind of thing? Isn’t it supposed to disseminate information on government activities to the public? Why is that the last article written by the GIS was in early September? Are employees of the GIS being paid with taxpayer’s money? Why are GIS articles so poorly written?
Questions and more questions, hence I can only conclude that the government is doing nothing and therefore the GIS has nothing to report.
Little Nevis has an impressive website and social media page just so the government’s news (print and television) is available and accessible to all who live on and off the island. Take a look http://www.nia.gov.kn or on http://www.facebook.com/nevistelevision (for daily news casts and has links to the print stories as well).
NO news is good news….lol
18 member cabinet plus seven advisors,one productivity consultant, a spiritual advisor, a diaspora coordinator and passport liquidation sale and gis have nothing to broadcast
actually GIS’ we presence may not be up to par but I think they are doing a good job on Ch. 7. Some very good progs.
web*
I can tell that even you wrote this there was no conviction
The same thing is happening on channel 7. The same old news and programs are being aired over and over. Get up to par GIS
I am very disappointed in the maintenance of that site. I used to look forward to the nightly news report but someone found it to be too much to upload. It would worth having someone specifically for the upkeep of the online news. The whole thing fell apart when someone got married. I guess he is still on his honeymoon.
allu don’t have work to do..what news again allu want
Thanks to the informative news from Dominica on line section. GIS news is like reading through obsolete news papers and with the same thing being broadcasted over and over on different days. Where are the good newsmen and reporters? i guess they are not being paid a decent wage for their experience. As usual the public pays for that. Keep up the good work DOL..
The boyz have gone to sleep., lol
Well the former Government Press Secretary was the worst! because his press releases used to come months after an activity took place. The guy was totally useless! The Government cleaning up the bad rubbish!
The Government cleaning out the bad rubbish? Hillarious!The Government IS the bad rubbish!
chupes…who cares whether they are there or not? They of no good anyway. Watch still, you may see the Labour awards ceremony on….this is no government information service, this is labour party or more accurately, Roosevelt Skerrit information service.
I suspect that all GIS releases reuire prior clearance from the top, by which time they would invariably be old news.
GIS, by its very nature is a promotional tool for whichever government happens to be in power. It can hardly be expected to publish news/prgrammes that would be critical of its paymasters and whilst it may have some value as a source of information, one should always look to other media sources to arrive at an independent view.
who goes to G.I.S for news??
… the only reason i used to watch the news on t.v was to see the lovely shabin host the news lol….. 
honestly it is so lame… and u can almost tell that they have lots of biasness going on… the best journalists to get the questions out of the politicians are the ones on G.I.S but they won’t cause we all know how it works in D.A…. can’t blame them.. they have mouths to feed
The person who wrote that pile of s***** should cover their self with it….and boss shabin? both of you guy….what goes around comes around…Just for emphasis..
So M.O.T.S, I guess Lennox is your ‘ideal’ type of journalist right? Not trying to defend GIS, but enough of the hypocracy from the likes of you!!!!
so it’s hypocrisy to say that G.I.S is biased…. really??? u asked whether i think lennox is my ideal journalist?? well my response to that is…. he sure does the job of an ideal journalist…. only thing is the politicians are to scared to face his questions so he wouldn’t bother…
WIKLEAKS would NEVER admit that..workers for life