A whistleblower account published by Antigua News Room is raising serious concerns about the management of ABS, the state broadcaster, alleging a workplace culture of fear and the potential loss of decades of the nation's archival footage — with the claims arriving as Antigua and Barbuda moves closer to another election cycle.
According to Antigua News Room, staff at ABS have for years spoken quietly about a culture shaped by fear, control, and retaliation. The account describes not isolated complaints, but a pattern repeated across time and across departments — one in which those who challenge management are sidelined, those who speak are watched, and those who remain learn how to survive.
Under General Manager Erna-Mae Brathwaite, the letter alleges serious questions have emerged about whether ABS is being managed in the public interest, or whether it has become a tightly controlled environment where accountability is limited and criticism is unwelcome.
Beyond workplace culture, the account raises what it describes as an even deeper concern: the fate of the nation's broadcast archive. ABS holds visual records of decades of national life — elections, disasters, celebrations, and defining moments. Internal allegations now suggest that large portions of that archive, with some estimating up to forty years of material, may have been mishandled, discarded, or lost under the current administration.
The letter is careful to note that these concerns may not be fully substantiated. However, it argues they are now too widespread to ignore. If accurate, it warns, the country faces not merely mismanagement but the loss of its own recorded history. If inaccurate, it calls on ABS leadership to respond clearly and publicly, stating that the absence of transparency has allowed such concerns to take root and spread.
The account frames the issue in the context of the approaching election, arguing that voters are not only choosing political representatives but also deciding what standards they are willing to accept from national institutions. It states plainly that ABS does not belong to its management or to any administration — it belongs to the people.
The letter poses direct questions to ABS leadership about the state of the archive and the independence of the broadcaster, and calls for public accountability at every level of the institution.
"When a state broadcaster loses its independence, its integrity, or its history, the public loses more than a media house," the account states. "It loses a part of its democracy."
The whistleblower describes those now beginning to speak out as motivated not by malice, but by concern — and by a conviction that ABS must be held to a higher standard than what they say it has become.
