Butch Stewart, owner and publisher of the Jamaica Observer (as well as the Sandals resorts and a couple of major businesses in Jamaica), is currently the subject of a court case. It is alleged that Mr. Stewart improperly received payments from a surplus of pension funds. Officials from his company are currently being cross-examined. Both the Jamaica Gleaner and Observer are covering the case, which is unremarkable.
What is remarkable is that the Observer yesterday took out a full page spread to attack the Gleaner’s coverage. Here is the full Gleaner story. I have never seen anything like this. Sometimes newspapers will write editorials vaguely referring to other media’s coverage, but it is rare when they take so much space to attack the competition. Is this an anomaly or symptomatic of Jamaica’s media landscape? I don’t know. I do know that as a keen student of both journalism and politics, I am dumbfounded by this.
Jamaican Journal 
To call what the Observer did ‘journalism’ is to stretch the very definition of the concept. The Jamaican media landscape has got to be the most laughable in the world. The Observer’s coverage of this trial makes no mention, whatsoever, that they are reporting on something that they themselves have an interest in. Of course the Gleaner is no better as they carry, without much comment, stories about Jamaica National despite their majority shareholders being the same person (Oliver Clarke). Lets not even get started on the political biases in the papers. Objective journalism is a lost concept in this fair isle I’m afraid.
Thank you for your comment. You make some good points. Especially about reporting on something they have an interest in. Usually there is some sort of disclosure sentence informing the readers of the potential conflict of interest. Nothing in this case, it appears. I don’t think journalism is a complete lost cause here in JA. There is some good investigative reporting going on, and no shortage of talented, determined reporters. There is also some good work coming out of CARIMAC. The problem, as you allude to, is the extreme political bias of both papers. Which is not unique to Jamaica, but it seems to colour the reporting to the point that it the end product sometimes lacks integrity.