“I have no interest in going because if you are going to run down even one member in the Civil Service, much more the political arm, then you are on the fighting side of Juliana.”
(CMR) Premier Hon Juliana O'Connor-Connolly has made it clear that she will not support Cayman Marl Road, stating that CMR's use of social media was “flirting with treachery.” She also instructed civil servants not to spend money on Cayman's #1 talk show and news platform.
The CIG TV video has since been made private, but CMR obtained a copy beforehand.
She also claimed responsibility for CMR's ratings “because my name is called in some shape or form every day.” She also warned civil servants that there are ways of tracing what is sent to local media.
Speaking at a technology conference on Friday, the Premier said the Civil Service and the political arm of government have to work as one, and she would not support a platform that goes against this.
“We have to come across as one body because we are as strong as our weakest link, and when places like Marl Road… Yes, I did say Marl Road because I don't go on it, I don't pay for advertisements on it. ,” she stated.
“I feel that as your political leader, I have to set that temperature and set that pace. And as soon I go on there– not because I'm afraid of going, you probably figure out by now that I can probably talk a little bit– if I go on something like Marl Road, I am endorsing it…I have taken a personal decision that I am not putting advertising money in it,” she said, adding if her team is doing it, they are doing so without her permission.
“I am not going on their program because you cannot build Cayman by dividing Cayman,” O'Connor-Conolly stated. Ironically, various government entities are constantly reach out to CMR for exposure for their events and press statements.
She told civil servants that when they are not pleased with people in the civil service and send information to “Sandra or Wendy,” they are not hurting these people but the country internationally.
“Let us locally try to get us off the Marl Road listening list…let us let civil service shine so even Marl Road would want to work for Radio Cayman,” she added.
Sandy Hill, content manager at Cayman Marl Road, has taken aim at this government for a number of policy decisions and also the premier and her biased comments on local media as well as her refusal to have a press conference.
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