By Anthony Foster in Fort de France, Martinique
Again, as too often to recall in recent times, the regional’s top junior track & field Meet, Carifta, is proving to be a very painful situation for working journalists.
Many journalists arrived here in Fort de France as early as Tuesday and many are still without accreditation, with more than 95 per cent of whom don’t speak French, and who are finding it very difficult to move around or even get into the stadium.
Officials here are just clueless as to when or if they will ever get accreditation for the three-day meet, which ends on Monday.
“Frustrated and painful” are just the main words being used by journalists to describe the situation in Martinique. And if the media are not important enough to get accreditation, it is reasonable to reason, that many athletes and team officials are suffering from the same situation.
PAs if that’s not enough to frustrate journalists – most of whom travel to every single Carifta Games – they are also finding it difficult to get results or find a link to results online, much less a good Internet service.
The media area is also in a very dirty condition; giving one the impression the seats and table have not been cleaned for months.
In Moscow last year, a group from the Caribbean Alliance Sports Journalists Association (CASJA) met with NACAC president Victor Lopez, who promised a better working relationship with regional journalists.
