Mr. John Benjamin, founder and host of the interactive and historic radio programme, Talk Your Mind, has called it quits after eighteen years. He has now left the show for other persons to continue it, if they so desire, but still retains his rights to the name of the programme.
The CEO of Caribbean Juris Chambers first withdrew from the talk show temporarily during the period February to August this year when he was appointed Acting High Court Judge for Nevis and Montserrat. “When I took up the appointment I indicated to Brother Lee, my co-host, and Mervin Saunders, that I did not feel comfortable being on the programme while on the Bench,” he explained to The Anguillian. “It is an open line programme in most cases, and even when there is not an open line people would call in and raise issues concerning the court, the police or crime. I did not want to be caught in a position of conflict so I told them I would not be available during the period I was on the Bench which took me up to the end of August.
“Since returning to Anguilla I therefore decided no longer to be on the Talk Your Mind programme on Kool FM. I indicated this by letter to Brother Lee, Mervin Saunders, and the owner of the station, Bevan Brooks, that I would cease to be a part of the programme as of the end of September.”
Mr. Benjamin, who has a long history of involvement in community radio talk shows in Birmingham, England, and in St. Kitts, said he was now undertaking to join a television programme on ATV3, operated by Mr. Wycliffe Richardson. “That programme will be called Real Talk, and we will go a little more in-depth into issues affecting Anguilla,” he disclosed. “Our first programme, on Wednesday October 3, from 8 – 9 pm will be about Anguilla’s relationship withBritain- and Governor Harrison has agreed to be our first guest. It will actually be the same time, eighteen years ago, when I started the Talk Your Mind programme on Radio Anguilla. It will be me and two other co-hosts – Keithstone Greaves and Marcel Fahie.” Mr. Benjamin said arrangements were being made to link-up the programme with a radio station and that the matter was under discussion with two stations.
Mr. Benjamin began the Talk Your Mind programme on Radio Anguilla on October 19, 1994. It was later ordered off the air by Chief Minister Hubert Hughes, whose Government had originally sanctioned its production on the station. The matter became a big issue and a court case about freedom of expression which attracted the interest and involvement of luminary legal minds across the Caribbean region and beyond.
The case was judged in favour of freedom of expression by then High Court Judge in Anguilla, Justice Adrian Saunders, but his judgment was later over turned by the Court of Appeal. Justice Saunders’ ruling was subsequently upheld by the Privy Council which, having dismissed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, ruled that the stopping of the programme was a violation of freedom of expression and therefore unconstitutional. The arguments were made before the Privy Council in London by a team of high-powered lawyers.
“The Talk Your Mind Case has been used as a case for freedom of expression throughout the world,” Mr. Benjamin said, with a deep sense of satisfaction and pride. “It was used in South Africa, Sri Lanka, in Antigua, with the Observer newspaper case and, more recently, in the Election Petition case in Nevis where the Government refused to allow equal opportunity for Mark Brantley to speak on the radio station. The court awarded him damages for denying him freedom of expression as the Talk Your Mind Case did.”
Mr. Benjamin has recorded his thanks to all who were associated with the Talk Your Mind programme, over the years, including the long list of persons who sponsored or appeared on the show or otherwise facilitated or supported it. He looks forward to the patronage and involvement of many persons in his new television programme, Real Talk, commencing on Wednesday evening, October 3.
