An Open Letter to the Prime Minister and the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party

The State of the Antigua and Barbuda Broadcasting Service and the Contradiction of Proclaimed Youth Development

Prime Minister and members of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party,

You have made youth development a cornerstone of your political messaging. You speak of empowering the next generation, of creating pathways, of investing in young Antiguans and Barbudans as the architects of this nation’s future. It is a compelling narrative. It is also one that your own decisions actively contradict.

Nowhere is that contradiction more visible than at the Antigua and Barbuda Broadcasting Service.

The state-owned broadcaster — the institution that should be the most accessible, most dynamic, and most forward-facing media presence in this country — is being led by a General Manager who has been extended well beyond her stated retirement period on a government contract. This is not an isolated personnel decision. It is symptomatic of a broader and deeply troubling practice within the public sector: the recycling of the same individuals in the same positions long past the point where succession planning should have taken effect, while younger, capable professionals are left waiting indefinitely for opportunities that never materialise.

If the ABLP is genuinely committed to youth development, that commitment must be reflected in the institutions it controls. It cannot exist only in speeches and social programmes while the doors to leadership remain firmly closed to the generation you claim to champion.

The consequences of this approach at ABS are not abstract. They are visible every single day.

The station’s content bears almost no meaningful appeal to younger audiences. Programming remains largely unchanged in format, style, and relevance from what it was decades ago. There is no serious effort to produce content that speaks to the realities, interests, or concerns of Antiguans and Barbudans under forty. The station operates as though the media landscape of the 1990s is still intact, seemingly unaware — or unconcerned — that the audience it is haemorrhaging will not return on its own.

The situation on social media is equally alarming. At a time when international and regional media houses have fundamentally restructured their digital strategies — building engaged online communities, producing short-form video content, leveraging platforms to extend their reach far beyond traditional broadcast — ABS’s social media presence remains rudimentary at best. The formats are outdated. The engagement is negligible. The strategy, if one exists at all, reflects none of the innovation that has become standard practice across the industry.

This is the direct result of leaving an institution in the hands of leadership that has neither the mandate nor, it appears, the inclination to modernise it.

Antigua and Barbuda’s young people are not watching ABS. They are not listening to its radio stations in any meaningful numbers. They have migrated to platforms and content creators who speak their language and understand their world. Every day that passes without serious, structural change at the broadcaster is another day the state cedes its media relevance to sources over which it has no editorial relationship or influence whatsoever.

The extension of post-retirement contracts in the public sector is a practice that must end. It is not compassionate governance. It is not institutional continuity. It is the deliberate or negligent blocking of generational transition in leadership, and it runs directly counter to every stated objective this administration has articulated on youth empowerment.

If the ABLP wishes to be taken seriously on the question of youth development, it must demonstrate that commitment where it has direct and unambiguous control. ABS is one such place. The appointment decisions made there are yours. The content failures there are yours. The digital stagnation there is yours.

Own it — and then fix it.

A Concerned Citizen of Antigua and Barbuda

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