Jamaican gov't to use 'receipts' to combat 'misinformation' - Info Minister

The Government will be producing “receipts” as part of its new approach to combat the spread of "misinformation" in the public domain, says Information Minister, Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon.

"We will be countering it; we will come with the receipts; we will play the videos from months ago, and we will do that," she said at Wednesday's morning at a post-Cabinet news conference. “We don’t usually necessarily take on misinformation and disinformation or information that is false; we’re going to have to do so in this context where something is said that is not true,”

The minister said the Government "cannot leave it unchallenged”.

This is not the first indication of the Government’s intent to respond to misinformation.

In June 2024, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness warned of future prosecutions against “the entire industry called fake news” and those trying “to trick people to get power”.

“We have been tracking, and you’re going to see some actions very shortly for those persons. Much of what is being done is in fact against the law,” he said at a Jamaica Labour Party meeting.

Holness said then that the party did not use or endorse the use of social media to attack or assassinate people’s character or to spread misinformation.

Also in June 2024, Morris Dixon said the Government was prepared to “go after” people who spread “blatant lies” online.

“What the government is saying is that what is posted on social media needs to be based in truth. And in that vein, what we have said is that where there are issues or instances where we know individuals have posted things that are not true that we will have to go after those individuals in terms of prosecuting them,” she said.

Adding that similar action has been taken in different countries dealing with the issue of "fake news".

At the time, Morris Dixon said the Government was not engaged in any tracking or curtailing of citizens who speak negatively of the administration.

Stating that the Government does not oppose dissent as it is key to any democratic society, Dixon however stressed the importance in finding the balance between freedom of expression and honest discourse.

She noted too that there were no new laws at the time to address the issue, but “there are already laws that exist that can be used in terms of prosecuting individuals who do not speak truth online”.

The information minister pointed to the Cybercrimes Act and the Defamation Act.

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