The Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) is not well known outside of media circles. It is an association of regional public service and commercial broadcasters that was formed in 1970 and is headquartered in Barbados. Its job is essentially regional media integration and the harmonisation of broadcasting to maintain standards and develop the sector.

Last week, it held its 53rd Annual General Assembly in Tobago with the theme Media and Information Literacy, and our PM was the keynote speaker.

He upset a few apple carts when he revealed his unfavourable view of the current media scene in the region overall, since he did not single out TT for criticism per se.

A basic rule in media law to avoid libel and defamation is to be precise and name the villain or you will defame everyone.

Of course, that was not for Dr Rowley to know, but it shows the dangers of everyday citizen journalism. This newspaper reported on the event and on Wednesday entitled its leader ''Journalist' Rowley.'

Given my years judging the annual CBU media awards and as a retired BBC executive and professional journalist, my perspective is sympathetic to both sides.

Dr Rowley did not take the time, in his relatively brief address, to develop his argument properly, so after frontloading and unbalancing his speech with a wide range of historical references, which he recommended to journalists for providing context, the audience of regional media professionals received a series of short, sharp insults delivered in the manner of his own criticism of the behaviour of journalists: 'Full stop. That is it.'

Some of his observations were correct, but some were misguided, while others are caused by the structure of the media itself, which is governed by legislation.

His was an outsider's view of the media, so the speech did not differentiate between media sectors, or between reporters and media owners, or between news and current affairs on the one hand and documentaries and entertainment on the other, which is very pertinent when levelling criticism.

Today, with the ubiquitous smartphone with laser-precise cameras and the plethora of social media platforms where everyone is an expert on everything, without any mediation, the established media have a very difficult and underrated role to perform.

The media once could fulfil the duty of uniting a country, 'many voices, one world,' as a former UN secretary general called for in the 1970s and which Dr Rowley cited as an ideal.

However, once broadcasting was commercialised and democratised and the family no longer sat around the radio to listen together to the single state broadcaster, or watched the one television channel, the dream died, along with shared culture. The communications technology revolution buried them even further.

We have 36 radio stations in tiny TT. As argued before in this column, that is not commercially viable, given the size of our population, and each broadcaster must, therefore, sacrifi