Ke­jan Haynes

Lead Ed­i­tor, News­gath­er­ing

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says he will on­ly in­vite the "main­stream me­dia" to press con­fer­ences at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre. The an­nounce­ment came at the PNM's "Mix and Min­gle" gath­er­ing at the Wa­ter­front on Mon­day night.

"Ladies and Gen­tle­men, in very many coun­tries the me­dia and the Gov­ern­ment are mor­tal en­e­mies. It is a ques­tion of life and death. In Trinidad and To­ba­go it is a ques­tion of how many peo­ple got in­vit­ed to the Prime Min­is­ter's press con­fer­ence," he quipped at the be­gin­ning of his re­marks.

The Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (MATT) re­cent­ly took Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley and the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter to task for not hav­ing a clear pol­i­cy on who could and could not at­tend the press con­fer­ences af­ter Robert Amar, own­er of 104.7 com­plained he was barred from last Thurs­day's COVID brief­ing, de­spite at­tend­ing press con­fer­ences in the past.

Dr Row­ley re­spond­ed to MATT and ed­i­to­ri­als which called on the Prime Min­is­ter to re­veal the pol­i­cy in the in­ter­est of press free­dom.

"MATT says that it is un­ac­cept­able for the Prime Min­is­ter to have maybe no pol­i­cy with re­spect to who comes to the press con­fer­ences. Some­times some­thing is in such a plain view that it is in­vis­i­ble. The pol­i­cy is by in­vi­ta­tion," he said, so­lic­it­ing some laugh­ter from his PNM col­leagues.

"Every­body who la­bels them­selves me­dia will de­mand that they be en­ti­tled to turn up in the press con­fer­ence. Lead­ers of po­lit­i­cal par­ties, can­di­dates, spon­sors of vul­gar­i­ty and in­sults," he con­tin­ued.

"If there is a press con­fer­ence at the Prime Min­is­ter's res­i­dence and we in­vite TV6, CNC3, TTT, Chan­nel 5, and even Loop of the mod­ern era, I find it dif­fi­cult to ac­cept that if I don't al­low every me­dia Mary and John­ny, that there is not press free­dom in Trinidad and To­ba­go."

The Prime Min­is­ter said on this mat­ter, he pleads "not guilty."

He then asked if CNC3 would be ok with be­ing ro­tat­ed out of the press con­fer­ence, as was be­ing sug­gest­ed by at least one ed­i­to­r­i­al, to be re­placed by the "lat­est blog­ger who calls him­self the me­dia with a name and a jer­sey."

He said he has al­ways been avail­able for the me­dia's ques­tions. Once again, the PM asked as he has on the po­lit­i­cal plat­form, why the me­dia does not ask the Op­po­si­tion Leader as many ques­tions. Dr Row­ley again called on the me­dia to ask who re­moved the clause in the OAS con­tract which the Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to fight in the courts. He al­so not­ed how Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald was pil­lo­ried in the me­dia when she faced charges in the court, but an op­po­si­tion MP fac­ing charges con­tin­ues to ask him ques­tions in the Par­lia­ment.

"So, I have to con­clude that you're very se­lec­tive in the ques­tions you ask or who you ask the ques­tions to. But then, of course, you are the free me­dia," he said as he closed his re­marks.

Pri­or Be­har­ry, of AZP News, who al­so raised con­cerns about be­ing able to at­tend press con­fer­ences at the Prime Min­is­ter's res­i­dence, was present at the event. He told Guardian Me­dia he spoke to the Prime Min­is­ter who as­sured him he would look in­to it.