GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: As part of ongoing development plans within the Caribbean region, Caribbean Net News has now launched several country-specific “Net News” websites, in order to provide more in-depth news, information and commentary in relation to each country and territory than is currently the case with the Caribbean Net News website, which is largely intended to cover the entire region in broad terms.

Not only will the new country-specific websites provide an opportunity for greater local news coverage but they will also promote the free exchange of opinion that is sometimes lacking in some areas in the region.

Eventually, the regional coverage of the Net News group will include websites for all the countries and territories in the Caribbean Basin.

One of the new websites is Turks and Caicos Net News and this will be a primary focus of this increased regional coverage, as publisher and editor in chief, Desmond Seales, explains: “In recent months we have been particularly concerned about the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). We have received a number of communications from TCI residents and others alerting us to events occurring there and expressing opinions as to the situation but, without exception, none of our readers has been willing to reveal their identities.”

This phenomenon was also outlined by British Member of Parliament Greg Pope, a member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) during an evidence session on March 26, 2008 dealing with Britain’s Overseas Territories.

Pope said, “When we hold any inquiry, the Committee receives lots of written evidence. Typically, the senders of a handful of that evidence request confidentiality, but for the TCI, a large number of people did. That is of real concern. I am finding it hard to put that in context, but the only other place that I have been where people have insisted on such confidentiality was the People's Republic of China. I am shocked that people are doing that in a country that has the Union Jack on the flag.”

“In view of this,” Seales continued, “We have decided that the TCI will be an initial focus of our development effort, in order to provide our readers there with not only a reliable, objective and politically neutral source of news, but also a forum to exchange information and opinion.”

Turks and Caicos Net News may be found online at www.tcinetnews.com.

Other country-specific websites that are now online are Anguilla Net News, Antigua-Barbuda Net News, Aruba Net News, Bahamas Net News, Barbados Net News, Belize Net News, Bermuda Net News, Bonaire Net News, British Virgin Islands Net News, Cuba Net News and Jamaica Net News.

Each site includes a discussion forum for members and the option to exchange private messages and upload and share photographs.

Other sites will go live gradually, eventually embodying video reports, during the course of the next few months.