RHON­DA RAM­BAL­LY

Op­po­si­tion MP and for­mer so­cial de­vel­op­ment min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne says a nat­ur­al ten­sion ex­ists be­tween pub­lic fig­ures in Gov­ern­ment and mem­bers of the me­dia fra­ter­ni­ty, how­ev­er, it is not "un­healthy."Browne said as a young politi­cian it was "very ex­cit­ing" to be caught up in the ten­sion.He was speak­ing at The Bo­cas De­bate on Free­dom of the Press, chaired by Ex­press colum­nist Lennox Grant on Thurs­day.Browne was one of two politi­cians who spoke at the de­bate which was one of the ac­tiv­i­ties of The Bo­cas Lit Fest at the Old Fire Sta­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.

Browne added: "I feel there has been what I view as a nat­ur­al ten­sion be­tween Gov­ern­ment's pub­lic fig­ures and mem­bers of the me­dia."I don't think that is un­healthy. I don't think that is un­nat­ur­al and in fact, it comes out as what I view as a lack of un­der­stand­ing at times."It is clear the me­dia play a very im­por­tant part in any civilised so­ci­ety."He said the Con­sti­tu­tion had en­shrined in "black and white" free­dom of thought and ex­pres­sion and so­ci­ety should frown on any ef­fort to con­strain free­dom of the press.

He said past ad­min­is­tra­tions some­times re­spond­ed to the ten­sion and yield­ed to the temp­ta­tion to find ways to ed­i­to­ri­alise or re­strict the de­gree of ques­tion­ing and ex­am­i­na­tion of ar­eas.He added: "I think once there is a ba­sic un­der­stand­ing, first of all that the me­dia have, cer­tain­ly, a right en­shrined in the Con­sti­tu­tion to free­dom of ex­pres­sion and to free press and al­so un­der­stand­ing that the me­dia can serve as a tremen­dous as­set if the ob­jec­tive is to en­light­en, to in­form and to pro­vide ac­cu­rate in­for­ma­tion."Mean­while, for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Mervyn As­sam, said the me­dia got away "scott free."He said when the me­dia were crit­i­cised they cried foul and be­lieved they "were a sa­cred cow."

He said, too, that politi­cians seemed to think they (politi­cians) had an in­dis­creet pow­er to do what­ev­er they de­sired and should not be tram­pled.As­sam said: "The press feels it has the right to in­ves­ti­gate, noth­ing is wrong with that, the right to re­port, noth­ing is wrong with that, but it al­so has the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to do so in a fair and ac­cu­rate fash­ion and more im­por­tant­ly to rep­re­sent it­self as an in­tel­li­gent or­gan­i­sa­tion and in­sti­tu­tion which some­times, un­for­tu­nate­ly they do not live up to."He said the me­dia en­joyed a priv­i­lege which was ask­ing ques­tions but nev­er be­ing ques­tioned.He added: "I think the me­dia have got­ten away scott free in this coun­try from my ex­pe­ri­ence dur­ing my years of read­ing and look­ing at the me­dia."I can't think of any oc­ca­sion in this coun­try where the me­dia have re­al­ly been tak­en to task se­ri­ous­ly by politi­cians."