The history of Grenada's press is in many ways the history of Grenadian politics told from the printing room. Newspapers campaigned for self-government under colonial rule, became battlegrounds during the Gairy years, were shut down under the revolution, and returned after 1983 with a combative independence that still defines them. Radio followed a parallel path, from government mouthpiece to revolutionary voice to a crowded commercial dial.
Knowing that history explains a good deal about how Grenadian media behave today: their suspicion of government pressure, their attachment to the idea of the watchdog, and the sensitivity of politicians to what is said about them. This account covers the main turning points, sticking to well-documented events and noting where sources disagree.
Colonial papers and the campaign for representation
Newspapers in Grenada date back to the era of plantation slavery, when small papers served the merchant and planter class with shipping news, official notices and advertisements. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a different kind of paper had emerged, written by and for an educated Black and mixed-race middle class that wanted a voice in government.
The most famous was The West Indian, founded in 1915 and associated with Theophilus Albert Marryshow, the journalist and politician remembered as a father of the West Indian federation idea. Through its columns, Marryshow and his colleagues argued for elected representation, an end to Crown colony rule and closer union among the British Caribbean territories. The paper made journalism a respectable route into public life.
Colonial governments tolerated such papers but kept legal tools at hand, including sedition laws inherited from Britain. Editors learned to criticise policy without crossing lines that might bring prosecution, an early lesson in navigating power that later generations would recognise.
The Gairy years: a polarised press
The rise of Eric Gairy after the 1951 general strike transformed Grenadian politics and its media. Gairy built a mass movement among agricultural workers, and newspapers lined up for or against him. The Torchlight, a widely read paper, and opposition publications such as the New Jewel Movement's own paper became central to the political struggle of the 1970s.
Critics of Gairy's governments accused them of using state power against opponents, including the press. The state radio station was widely seen as serving the ruling party, and opposition activists and journalists faced harassment, particularly around the independence period. Violence in January 1974, on the day remembered as Bloody Monday, when Rupert Bishop was killed, deepened the sense that dissent carried physical risk.
Alister Hughes, a journalist whose newsletter and regional reporting made him one of the best-known Grenadian reporters of his time, was among those who documented the period, often at personal risk. He was also among those detained during the crisis of October 1983, a reminder that press freedom suffered under more than one government.
The revolution and the press, 1979 to 1983
Radio Free Grenada. On 13 March 1979 the New Jewel Movement took power and renamed the state station Radio Free Grenada. It became the main voice of the People's Revolutionary Government, broadcasting speeches, rallies and mobilisation campaigns, while the government also published its own newspaper.
The Torchlight closed. In 1979 the government shut down the Torchlight, accusing it of spreading falsehoods and serving foreign interests. Sources differ on the exact date, but the closure ended the island's main independent paper.
The Grenadian Voice. In June 1981, a group of twenty-six citizens launched The Grenadian Voice as an independent paper. The government closed it almost immediately, accused its backers of links to foreign intelligence and detained some of them.
People's Law restrictions. The government then banned the printing of new newspapers for a period and introduced restrictions on newspaper ownership, including caps on individual shareholdings and a bar on foreign ownership. Independent print was effectively silenced for the rest of the revolutionary period.
October 1983 and its aftermath
The collapse of the revolution in October 1983, with the house arrest and killing of Maurice Bishop and several colleagues, followed by the United States-led intervention, was also a media crisis. Information was scarce, rumours spread, and Radio Free Grenada went off the air during the fighting. Much of what the world learned came from foreign correspondents and regional journalists arriving after the event.
In the period that followed, broadcasting came back under civilian control and newspapers returned. The Grenadian Voice resumed publication, and new weeklies appeared, including The Grenada Informer, established in 1985, and The New Today. The state broadcaster continued as the Grenada Broadcasting Corporation, and over the following years private radio stations received licences.
The memory of the revolution's press restrictions became a reference point in later debates, invoked by journalists, opposition politicians and press freedom advocates alike. When governments after 1983 were accused of pressuring the media, critics often reminded them of how quickly freedoms had disappeared before.
How the outside world reported Grenada
For much of its history, Grenada's image abroad was shaped by foreign and regional reporters rather than its own press. The Caribbean News Agency, established in the 1970s as a regional wire service, relied on local correspondents to file stories that newspapers and broadcasters across the region then carried. Grenadian journalists who did that work became important links between the island and its neighbours.
The intervention of October 1983 produced one of the best-known episodes in the history of press access during military operations. Journalists were kept away from the island during the first days of the operation, and many of those trying to reach it were turned back or held. The restrictions provoked strong protests from American news organisations and led to the development of press pool arrangements for later operations.
As a result, early international accounts of 1983 relied heavily on official briefings. Grenadian testimony, collected later by local writers, historians and the island's own revived press, has helped balance that record over the following decades.
From liberalisation to the digital age
The decades since 1983 have seen a steady widening of the media landscape, with a few notable milestones.
- 1998: the government sold a majority stake in its broadcaster to a regional media company, creating the Grenada Broadcasting Network, with the state keeping a minority share.
- Late 1990s and 2000s: private FM stations multiplied, and talk radio became the main forum for political argument.
- 2006: GBN's majority shareholder became part of the newly formed One Caribbean Media group after a regional merger.
- 2000s and 2010s: online news sites, including NOW Grenada, and later Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups became major sources of news.
- 2012: Parliament abolished criminal libel, a regional first according to the International Press Institute.
- 2013–2014: the Electronic Crimes Act controversy ended with Parliament removing the contested offensive messages provision.
Reading the history carefully
Sources are partisan. Much of what was written about the Gairy and revolutionary periods came from people on one side or the other. Newspapers of the time are valuable but carry their own allegiances, so historians compare multiple accounts.
Dates vary. Accounts differ on some details, such as the exact date of the Torchlight closure. Where sources disagree, the safest course is to give the year and note the discrepancy rather than pick one date.
Archives are incomplete. Hurricanes, especially Ivan in 2004, damaged records and collections. Some historical newspapers survive more completely in overseas libraries than in Grenada itself, which is a challenge for local researchers.
Radio left fewer traces. Broadcasts from the Gairy and revolutionary years were rarely archived systematically. Surviving recordings of speeches are precious, but much of the day-to-day output of Radio Grenada and Radio Free Grenada is lost, so historians lean heavily on print and personal testimony.
Frequently asked questions
What was The West Indian newspaper?
The West Indian was a Grenadian newspaper founded in 1915 and associated with T.A. Marryshow. It campaigned for representative government and West Indian federation and became one of the most influential papers in the British Caribbean of its era.
Why was the Torchlight closed?
The People's Revolutionary Government closed the Torchlight in 1979, accusing it of publishing falsehoods and serving foreign interests. Sources differ on the precise date. Its closure ended the main independent newspaper of the revolutionary period.
What happened to The Grenadian Voice in 1981?
A group of twenty-six citizens launched it as an independent paper in June 1981. The government shut it down almost at once, accused its backers of links to foreign intelligence and later restricted newspaper ownership. The paper resumed publication after 1983.
What was Radio Free Grenada?
It was the name given to the state radio station after the New Jewel Movement took power on 13 March 1979. It served as the main voice of the People's Revolutionary Government until it went off the air during the crisis of October 1983.
When did private radio start in Grenada?
Private stations were licensed in the years after 1983, and their numbers grew in the late 1990s and 2000s. In 1998 the state broadcaster itself was partly privatised when a regional company bought a majority stake, creating the Grenada Broadcasting Network.
