Geisha Kow­lessar

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith has said the death threat made against CCN se­nior in­ves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist Mark Bas­sant has re­in­forced his call to rid the coun­try of gangs.He de­scribed the threat as very se­ri­ous and one which must be nipped in the bud."I am tak­ing this mat­ter very se­ri­ous­ly and it has to be dealt with as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. The me­dia plays a very im­por­tant role in our so­ci­ety and we must pro­tect that. These gangs have to be crushed," Grif­fith added.

Bas­sant has since left the coun­try.

In a video clip on the TV6 news on Wednes­day night Bas­sant said on May 7 he got a call from an un­der­world source to say cer­tain crim­i­nal el­e­ments want­ed to harm him be­cause of sto­ries he wrote re­cent­ly."I made a re­port on it. The next day I was li­ais­ing with cer­tain po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved in a spe­cif­ic in­ves­ti­ga­tion, on­ly to lat­er learn from oth­er trust­ed sources that these same of­fi­cers who I had spo­ken to ear­li­er were leak­ing in­for­ma­tion about me and what I knew to the said in­di­vid­u­als who or­gan­ised for my demise," Bas­sant claimed.

He said he then in­formed a high-rank­ing in­tel­li­gence source and an­oth­er trust­ed se­nior in­tel­li­gence of­fi­cer. The se­nior of­fi­cer, Bas­sant added, lat­er told him his name was on a hit list, to­geth­er with oth­ers."In fact, he told me they had al­ready been giv­en the or­der to en­gage the tar­gets, in­clud­ing me, and that the hit against me was start­ing at $20,000," Bas­sant added.He said the in­ci­dent had left him an­gry, es­pe­cial­ly since jour­nal­ists, who work for the peo­ple, could eas­i­ly be threat­ened.Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, TV6's head of news Do­minic Kaliper­sad said when the threat was re­port­ed to Grif­fith he said the sus­pect was "ruth­less."

Grif­fith al­so as­sured the po­lice were mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion close­ly.Kaliper­sad de­scribed Bas­sant as a strong and com­mit­ted jour­nal­ist who would not want to be put in a po­si­tion which pre­vent­ed him from per­form­ing his call­ing in a fair man­ner.Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams yes­ter­day promised the po­lice were do­ing all they could to en­sure the mat­ter was prop­er­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ed and said Supt Ken­rick Ed­wards, head of the Crim­i­nal In­tel­li­gence Gang Unit, was lead­ing the probe.

Me­dia groups con­cerned

The Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (MATT) al­so has ex­pressed con­cern and urged the po­lice to move swift­ly.In a press re­lease yes­ter­day the as­so­ci­a­tion said if the al­le­ga­tions were proven to be true, law en­force­ment of­fi­cers must bring the per­pe­tra­tors to jus­tice, adding that a free and fair press was im­por­tant to the coun­try's democ­ra­cy."A free and fair press is cru­cial to the func­tion­ing of all in­sti­tu­tions and right-think­ing mem­bers of the so­ci­ety should al­so con­demn any threat or at­tack on mem­bers of the me­dia."These threats can re­sult in a jour­nal­ist op­er­at­ing un­der fear which weak­ens the role of the fourth es­tate as a watch­dog," the as­so­ci­a­tion added.On its Face­book page the As­so­ci­a­tion of Caribbean Me­dia Work­ers (ACM) said the fact that Bas­sant had been forced to flee the coun­try un­der­scored the se­ri­ous­ness with which both his me­dia in­sti­tu­tion and the State's se­cu­ri­ty forces were treat­ing the mat­ter."We join with the Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T in call­ing for ur­gent ac­tion to get to the bot­tom of this sit­u­a­tion."Our in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners are sim­i­lar­ly con­cerned and we all look for­ward to a thor­ough and ex­pe­di­tious in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the pros­e­cu­tion of any­one found to be be­hind this threat," the ACM added.