T&T is ranked 44 of 179 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, a dipstick of the international group, Reporters Without Borders (RWB).A fairly good ranking, you say! Nah! T&T deserves a much better placing.Here's why.A higher billing was negated largely by three factors, all of which are isolated and dated events, one going back to 2010.
That's when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, some five months after becoming the nation's leader, told Parliament that the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) had, for years, been illegally tapping telephones and intercepting e-mails.The Prime Minister stressed that during her discussions with the agency she had not been informed of the illegal activity.
"Had I been briefed about this secret aspect of the agency's functions, I would have taken immediate steps to address an act which I am advised to be unconstitutional and illegal," she affirmed.The Parliament later adopted the progressive Interception of Communications Act.Three years later, T&T's international image on press freedom is burdened, in part, because of lawlessness which was zapped by the current administration.
Ironically, RWB acknowledges: "The present government has taken real measures to strictly curtail the use of such practices and put them under judicial supervision."Another issue pertains to the raid of the Police Anti-Corruption Bureau on journalist Andre Bagoo, ostensibly to find the reporter's source.That was a reprehensible exercise, deserving of international damnation, but also a single measure that has not been repeated.
Ditto for the third case, which relates to attempts to trace the source of a story written by Anika Gumbs-Sandiford.The dreaded initiative, said to be mounted by the Chaguaramas Development Authority, has been denounced by the authorities.On the basis of those three measures, RWB intriguingly reports: "T&T still has not stopped its illegal monitoring of journalists' phone calls and attempts to identify their sources..."
Surely, a single act does not a trend make.On that basis, T&T deserves a much better placement, what with the absence of censorship, a vigorously performing and fiercely independent media, a functional Freedom of Information Act et al.
Juxtapose that against authoritarianism, coupled with imprisonment, even killings, of scribes in several hotspots around the world and you appreciate that the T&T media remain unfettered and operate, as the Prime Minister observes, in "an independent and vibrant environment," one in which "the press flourishes."
RWB has, admittedly, not yet been able to weigh the major leap associated with the impending abolition of the offence of criminal libel, and when it does it must acknowledge that even in the modern United States, there are such laws in 17 states linked to the internet.Yes, you can be convicted in the US for what you post on the internet! Internet libel is a felony in several States, including Washington.
Picture such a law in sweet T&T, where blogs are often indicated by malice, character assassination and simply nasty material, often under an anonymous veil.Not only is there no internet criminal libel law in this country, but the archaic legislation that relates to such an offence in the mainstream media is being dumped, in what the often-sceptical International Press Institute terms "a proud day for the media."
World press freedom is being observed with T&T still a progressive, modern and enviable nation, surely deserving of better international recognition.And that's something to write about!
Ken Ali