Received from a sender calling themselves Friends of Commonwealth

We write following your coverage about the Commonwealth and its Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland.

The focus of this communication is to bring to your attention the serious set of rulings published earlier last week by the Independent Press Standards Organisation, the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK, based on the complaints made Baroness Scotland in December 2016, against publications run by Associated Newspapers Limited. These are accessible via:

• Mail Online: https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=13841-16
• Daily Mail: https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=13839-16
• MoS: https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=13840-16

This is a case that is of significant public interest across the Commonwealth, particularly the Caribbean region, since it deals with issues concerning probity in public office. For over seven months the complaint to IPSO was used by Baroness Scotland as a shield to safeguard her from providing responses to matters of public interest including the expenditure of public funds. This included her unwillingness to answer questions at last December’s Transparency International UK Annual Anti-Corruption Lecture in London at which Baroness Scotland delivered the keynote address (http://www.transparency.org.uk/press-releases/statement-following-2016-annual-lecture/).

After an exhaustive investigation by IPSO, the rulings were made, where 13 of the 14 stories that Baroness Scotland had complained about were not found to have breached the accuracy code; and only 1 of the 14 stories was found to have breached the accuracy code and that too on a statistical error. This means that allegations of corruption, cronyism and misuse of public resources by Baroness Scotland of the Commonwealth have been upheld.

We are becoming alarmed that attempts are being made by Baroness Scotland to trivialise these serious rulings and justify her actions through a press statement issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat:http://thecommonwealth.org/media/news/response-ipso-adjudication, that is aimed at stymieing the integrity and transparency associated with such an adjudication process.

The violability of the Commonwealth Summit that is scheduled to be held in 9 months time in London is of genuine concern and fear to most of us. In this regard, we draw your attention to an editorial done by Caribbean News Now:

• http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Editorial%3A-How-much-longer-can-Baroness-Scotland-continue-as-Commonwealth-secretary-general%3F-35170.html

It will be appreciated if this scandal is brought to the attention of the Government of Barbados and citizens of Barbados via your online portal