LETTER: ABS At Breaking Point

ABS AT A BREAKING POINT

A whistleblower account calling for accountability ahead of the election

There are moments in a country’s life when silence becomes dangerous.

This is one of them.

As Antigua and Barbuda moves closer to another election cycle, there is growing unease about institutions that are meant to serve the public but appear to be operating without scrutiny. At the centre of that concern is ABS, the state broadcaster, an institution that should reflect the voice of the people but is increasingly being described, from within, as something else entirely.

For years, staff have spoken quietly about a culture shaped by fear, control, and retaliation. Not isolated complaints, not one disgruntled voice, but a pattern that repeats itself across time and across departments. Those who challenge are sidelined. Those who speak are watched. Those who stay learn quickly how to survive.

This is not the standard the public expects from a national broadcaster.

Under General Manager Erna-Mae Brathwaite, serious questions have emerged about whether ABS is being managed in the public interest or as a tightly controlled space where accountability is limited and criticism is unwelcome.

But what is now raising even deeper concern goes beyond workplace culture.

ABS holds the visual history of this nation. Decades of footage documenting elections, disasters, celebrations, and defining national moments are not just content. They are heritage.

And yet, there are increasing internal allegations that large portions of that archive, some estimating up to forty years of material, may have been mishandled, discarded, or lost under the current administration. These concerns, whether fully substantiated or not, are now too widespread to ignore.

If even part of this is true, the country is not just facing mismanagement. It is facing the loss of its own recorded memory.

And if it is not true, then the leadership of ABS must answer clearly and publicly, because the absence of transparency has allowed these concerns to take root.

This is why this moment matters.

An election is not only about choosing political representatives. It is about deciding what kind of institutions we are willing to accept. Whether we tolerate silence or demand answers. Whether we allow national assets to be controlled without oversight or insist on accountability at every level.

ABS does not belong to management. It does not belong to any administration. It belongs to the people.

The public has a right to know:

• What is the current state of the national archive held by ABS?
• What safeguards are in place to protect it?
• Why do reports of fear and suppression continue to surface from within the organisation?
• And who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that ABS serves the country, not control it?

This is no longer an internal issue.

It is a national one.

Because when a state broadcaster loses its independence, its integrity, or its history, the public loses more than a media house. It loses a part of its democracy.

And that is why people are beginning to speak, quietly at first, but with growing urgency.

Not out of malice.

Out of concern.

And out of a belief that institutions like ABS must be better than what they have become.

Change does not begin when everything is comfortable.

It begins when people decide that what is happening is no longer acceptable.

That moment is here.

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