Richard Lord

Par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in the For­eign Af­fairs and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­istry, Nicole Dy­er-Grif­fith, yes­ter­day called on the me­dia to al­ways strive to be re­spon­si­ble in dis­charg­ing their du­ties. Dy­er-Grif­fith made the call in ob­ser­vance of World Press Free­dom Day at a func­tion at Tow­er C, Wa­ter­front Com­plex, Port-of-Spain. She said press free­dom was one of the pil­lars up­on which a grow­ing na­tion must root its sta­bil­i­ty. Dy­er-Grif­fith said a free press was crit­i­cal to the de­vel­op­ment of a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic na­tion. "The me­dia oc­cu­py a crit­i­cal place in the gov­er­nance process," she added. "In or­der for democ­ra­cy to flour­ish, it is vi­tal that cit­i­zens have var­i­ous sources of in­for­ma­tion and ac­cess to prop­er fo­rums for open and fair de­bate," Dy­er-Grif­fith said.

She added that the me­dia must "stim­u­late de­bate" about the is­sues of the day. Sen­a­tor Dy­er-Grif­fith said jour­nal­ists should be more proac­tive, and broad­en the av­enues through which they ac­cess in­for­ma­tion. She al­so said me­dia work­ers should be "bold, coura­geous, fear­less and re­spon­si­ble in the way (they) car­ry about (their) du­ties in pro­vid­ing the so­ci­ety with in­for­ma­tion." Dy­er-Grif­fith said the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment had a "deep, un­bend­ing and spir­it­ed com­mit­ment to press free­dom." She called on every cit­i­zen to do their part to main­tain press free­dom with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. World Press Free­dom Day is cel­e­brat­ed each year on May 3.