Philipsburg: --- What was supposed to be an exciting moment for St. Maarten and its people and an opportunity for the media representatives to show case the island when the Oasis of the Seas made its inaugural call to St. Maarten many persons including the reporter from SMN News was denied access on board the ship. According to managing director of the St. Maarten Harbour Holding Companies Keith Franka said those persons whose names were not submitted to the cruise line before it reached St. Maarten would not get on board. While at the harbour, a photographer representing the Daily Herald was also denied access on board since the Daily Herald was also not on the so-called security list.Amazingly, commissioner of Harbour Affairs Theo Heyliger was on hand and both the photographer and SMN News approached him and asked him to see if the media representatives who were on the location could get the opportunity to snap some pictures. The commissioner said he would try, however, he ended up sending us an email to say that he was sorry because the person responsible for protocol for the Oasis of the Seas said that due to the amount of dignitaries scheduled to visit the ship and the fact that the managing director did not notify them on time they would not allow anyone to go on board.
When asked how come the entire media core on St. Maarten was not given the opportunity to either go on the cruise or even get on board here. Heyliger said the Royal Caribbean Cruise invited four members of the press from each island to be part of that cruise. Of the four persons there must be one person representing radio, one representing television, and two writers. Representing St. Maarten were four people but two of them works at the Daily Herald, one happens to be the night editor of that paper and the other a reporter conveniently both persons from that newspaper have an extra-ordinary relationship with the commissioner in charge of the harbour affairs.
Further research also showed us that the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau was not invited to be part of the cruise neither the commissioner of tourism affairs. It is also understood that no invitation was sent to the Government Information Service for the cruise. GIS was allowed to go on board when the ship called on St. Maarten. Our sources said the representatives of the tourist office and the commissioner of tourism Frans Richardson was invited to go on board as the ship as it docked in St. Maarten on Wednesday. Questions are now being raised as why the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau was not allowed to organize the events surrounding the Oasis of the Seas and why this was handled by the Harbour Holding Companies. There are questions as to who were invited from government and how the monies that are generated from the St. Maarten Harbour Holding Companies are spent. It is good to note that this is a government owned company. SMN News learnt that since the tourism and harbour affairs falls under two different commissioners discrepancies such as these would always show its ugly head.
It was even mentioned that the reporters that are covering tourism at the two main newspapers on the Dutch side of the island was also not invited to be part of the cruise. SMN News did contact the Today Newspaper to see if they were approached by the St. Maarten Harbour Holding company to be part of the nine-day cruise and we were told that never happened. As for the dignitaries that were scheduled to visit the Oasis SMN News learnt many of the persons that were invited are supporters of Heyliger's new political party.
SMN News on several occasions wrote about the lack of integrity among reporters and the types of relationship one particular reporter has with politicians but to date the reporter neither her employer have done anything to rectify the misuse of the media.
