On September 10^th, 1992, Cayman International Television Network  (Caribbean) Ltd (CITN – Cayman 27) first put out a video signal over the air. To the majority of people living on Grand Cayman it was not very memorable as the video was nothing more than a collection of colour bars that television engineers use to test the quality of the signal and colour.

However, to Joan (Watler) Wilson and myself, it was the most exciting experience we have ever had. We sat for hours staring at this static picture on our television set.

We were like kids again and we called our family and friends telling them excitedly to turn on their TV sets and go to UHF Channel 27 and look at the picture our new television station was transmitting.

I doubt many of them stayed on the channel for more than a second and doubted our sanity. However, it is now part of our islands’ history and we are proud to be part of it.

I have been asked many times what was the most memorable moment over the 14 years I was at the helm of CITN. Whilst there are many, the one that stands out was the Northward Prison Riot that raged for two days in the beginning of October 1999.

It was the second riot in the same week but the first had been contained. Then on the morning of Thursday 2^nd October, I received a report that prisoners had broken out of their cells and set HMP Northward on fire. More calls ensued saying that many prisoners had escaped and were terrorizing the neighbourhood.

Mike Martin, the Station Manager and myself consulted with the News Director and our new mobile outside TV broadcast truck was sent down to Northward to investigate.

Trying to call someone at the RCIPS met with no information and this was partly due to the Police Commissioner, David Thursfield being away, as was the Director of the Prison.

We gave out on the 7am news that was in progress that there had been reports of a riot at the Prison and a fire had been started. Within minutes, M/s Pat Ebanks, who was at that time head of the Government Information Service (GIS) was on the phone to me. She angrily told me that there was no riot just a ‘disturbance’ that had been dealt with and all inmates were “locked down”. She sent us a statement to that affect which we read out.

Once our truck reached Northward we were informed that the GIS statement was incorrect. Prisoners were not locked down but were running all over the prison and outside in the enclosure waving at our cameras. There was smoke and flames coming from some of the prison buildings. The prison staff had barricaded themselves into the main prison entrance area.

Mike and myself decided to go live and show what was happening with local reporter Gilbert Nicoletta commentating from outside the prison fence. We parked our truck as close as we could get and no one in authority tried to stop us.

Later, M/s Ebanks called me again and told us to put out another GIS statement that everything was under control at the prison. I told her I knew quite differently that this wasn’t so. She got very angry then and told me to announce the new statement she had prepared. I obeyed and at the same time we ran the live feed that totally contradicted what the statement said.

Gilbert was a controversial but popular figure and many prisoners judged him as “one of them” and they had many grievances they wanted him to highlight. Gilbert asked Mike Martin if he could actually go inside the prison and talk to the prisoners. Whoever was in charge of the prison on that day gave the go ahead and the prisoners were chanting “Gilbert!’ “Gilbert!”.  In he went and he came back about 30 minutes later with a written message.

The prisoners were mainly complaining about “overcrowding”, “parole grievances” and a “communications failure between them [prisoners] and the staff.”

In the afternoon Mike got a frantic telephone from one of the MLAs who used to work for one of WestStar’s (CITN’s management company) companies – Media Works – and said the government was seriously considering shutting the television station down and to get Colin Wilson to stop the outside broadcast immediately.

Mike and I agreed we would not do so. We had the backing of the country behind us and us being there had not made the situation worse but the opposite. We had given the prisoners an outlet for their grievances and most of the prisoners were now playing football and the burning down of the buildings had stopped.

None-the-less I got a call from the Hon. Truman Bodden, who was generally recognised as the government head and a man I got on very well with. He was not happy and asked me if I was aware as to what my television station was showing. I said I was and I gave him my reasons telling him that the public could see that no prisoners had escaped and up to when we started showing what was happening rumours had been rife. “Prisoners were running free all over the island” was one of the mild ones. People had been calling in terrified. Mr. Bodden, after considering what I had said, closed our conversation with the words, “I take your point.”

Shortly after noon the next day the riot was over. Armed police arrived with assault rifles and our vehicle was made to move far away and government trucks were placed along the perimeter front fence so we could show nothing of the prison. We were only permitted to show a distant Gilbert Nicoletta and all prepared statements were read on camera by Pat Ebanks. We were not even trusted to read them.

Because of the threat of being closed down and to avert an official admonishing we got Joan Wilson, who was Chairman of CITN, to make a statement that we showed throughout the afternoon and over the weekend. In effect, she praised government for having the foresight in allowing CITN to show the riot ‘as it happened’ so there could be no doubt that no prisoners had escaped and to give them an opportunity to express their grievances.

We never heard an official word from government except from one of the backbenchers, Gilbert McLean, who told me he thought Joan’s message was excellent.

Police Commissioner Thursfield arrived back on the following Monday and called a press conference. He told me that if he had been on the island we would not have got within five miles of Northward prison. I told him I was very disappointed with what he said. Up to that time we had been on very good terms.