Tech tutorials, howtos and walkthroughs

On Monday May 26th 2014 we ran a story about the social media storm is brewing on Twitter after the official Twitter account for the Meteorological Service of Jamaica was ordered closed by management after an apparent disagreement with North East St. Elizabeth Member of Parliament and Deputy General Secretary for the People’s National Party Raymond Pryce.

Meteorological Service jamaica

The Met Service has since released a statement that clear the air on the reasons why and how the account was suspended. The fill statement is embedded below.

On Monday afternoon, May 26, 2014, the decision was taken by the management of the Meteorological Service Division to suspend activity on its Twitter account with immediate effect.  This decision followed several calls related to the content of some of the tweets and the perception that in some cases, the information reflected personal views of the Division’s staff rather than the official position of the organization.

After critical review it was determined that the concerns were justified, and that there was an obvious shortcoming in the supervision of the account.  In order to develop guidelines and protocols to safeguard the integrity of the information posted by the Meteorological Service, a discontinuation of further tweets was requested.

At no time did the management of the Meteorological Service order that the account be de-activated, and it is indeed unfortunate that this action was taken rather than the intended suspension of use, pending the establishment of controls.  The Division, therefore, apologizes for the inconvenience and apparent disappointment that this has generated and is currently taking steps to resume this essential service in the shortest timeframe possible.

We acknowledge the overwhelming support and tremendous following that the MetserviceJA account has garnered in a relatively short period, and hasten to assure the public that our future presence on social media will continue to provide meteorological information that is both educational and appealing,  in a more supervised and professional environment.

 

About the Author

Read more on Geezam.com