When Patrick Chookolingo first introduced an alternative to the mainstream media via the weekly press, he never imagined that his style of independent bombastic journalism would someday be abandoned by the weeklies, in favour of partisan political reporting.
The weeklies today are all aligned with a specific political entity: The Bomb with the People's Partnership; the Mirror with the PNM; the Sunshine with the ILP; and the Voice Today with the People's Partnership; while the dailies now have journalists who span the political spectrum and report on breaking news without appearing to favour a specific political stripe, possibly guided by their editor and a public who will quickly recognise slanted reporting and gravitate towards news organisations that they view as believable.
Even though the public may not necessarily agree with a particular point of view reported in their favourite daily, they know that in that same daily there could be reporting and commentaries that they view as fair.
While no one is without bias, journalists have a responsibility, despite whatever inherent predilection they may have, to work conscientiously and assiduously to be fair and unbiased. The weeklies have shown that they will not publish stories that show their political party in a negative light, while they tout the accomplishments of their own.
Because of the irresponsibility of the weekly media, the Government has now blasted the sensationalism of the press. Dr Bhoe Tewarie has stated that the distortion of stories carried in the media is disturbing.
However, even as he attacked the press, he stated that this was not an attack on the press.Dr Tewarie further stated that we are venturing into the realm of tabloid journalism.I am not even sure that we can dignify the weeklies by calling them tabloid journalism, they are simply arms of political parties under the guise of the press, using the cloak of press freedom to publish attacks on their political opponents.
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the press itself to prevent the government from using laws, such as the proposed Cybercrime Bill to muzzle them, by being fair in its reporting.If we agree with the premise that we are a country of laws, why is it that the media organisations, such as the TTPBA and Matt, are up in arms against the provision in the bill that proposes that anyone who obtains illegally and unauthorised computer data should be prosecuted?
That includes journalists, for we all agree that no one is above the law; or is there one law for the public with an exemption for journalists? There is already an exemption for members of Parliament under Parliamentary Privilege; should there also be an exemption for journalists called Journalistic Privilege?
To summarise, in this bizarro world that we are creating, where good is bad and vice versa, the so-called independent weekly press is no longer independent because they are now affiliated with the deep pockets of political parties, and the journalists at the mainstream press are now doing excellent independent work.
And those against the Cybercrime Bill are claiming that they should not be held liable for using illegally obtained information since the press has legitimised it by the mere act of publication, it has suddenly become sanitised and therefore unable to be prosecuted.
Rex Chookolingo
Maraval