The Trinidad and To­ba­go Pub­lish­ers and Broad­cast­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTP­BA) has re­spond­ed to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s as­ser­tions con­cern­ing me­dia fair­ness and jour­nal­is­tic in­tegri­ty, in this coun­try.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment is­sued by the TTB­PA, this morn­ing…

“The In­ter­est We Pro­tect is the Right of the Peo­ple to Know

and to Re­port With­out Fear or Favour”

“Every­one has the right to free­dom of opin­ion and ex­pres­sion; this right in­cludes free­dom to hold opin­ions with­out in­ter­fer­ence and to seek, re­ceive and im­part in­for­ma­tion and ideas through any me­dia and re­gard­less of fron­tiers.”
─ Ar­ti­cle 19, Unit­ed Na­tions Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights

The TTP­BA notes the com­ments of the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go and views them as un­for­tu­nate. As an in­di­vid­ual he is free to hold an opin­ion, as a Prime Min­is­ter elect­ed by the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, he must have an ex­pec­ta­tion, as a mem­ber of gov­ern­ment, of be­ing held ac­count­able. The po­si­tion of our Prime Min­is­ter is fa­mil­iar and over the decades the me­dia has been sub­ject­ed to sim­i­lar com­ments by our coun­try’s lead­ers. Prime Min­is­ters and gov­ern­ments change but me­dia re­mains. It is al­so nor­mal in an elec­tion year that ten­sion be­tween in­cum­bents and the me­dia height­ens. It is déjà vu chat­ter!

Over the years the me­dia has ex­pe­ri­enced cy­ber­bul­ly­ing by politi­cians; a Prime Min­is­ter go­ing to a ra­dio sta­tion and pulling the plug; threats of re­vo­ca­tion of a broad­cast li­cense and the re­fusal of a broad­cast li­cense; at­tempts to fet­ter free­dom of speech via leg­is­la­tion; among oth­er mat­ters. This is part of the tug of war be­tween gov­ern­ments and me­dia in sev­er­al coun­tries of the world. It is an as­pect of so­ci­ety that is con­stant and a char­ac­ter­is­tic of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic na­tions.

The all too fa­mil­iar at­tacks on the me­dia from all par­ties any­time the facts re­port­ed are not to their lik­ing should not numb us to the dan­gers this be­hav­iour presents. Not on­ly to the phys­i­cal dan­ger to jour­nal­ists, as ar­dent sup­port­ers are un­able to see through the pol­i­tick­ing and take mat­ters in­to their own hands but to the dan­ger to our democ­ra­cy. A free press, which in­cludes free­dom from in­tim­i­da­tion and reprisals, is a cor­ner stone of democ­ra­cy and the in­creas­ing as­saults and ven­om with which they are de­liv­ered should be a con­cern to us all.

Our jour­nal­ists re­main com­mit­ted to the pub­lic we serve and to the prin­ci­ples of truth with­out fear or favour. In a democ­ra­cy the role of the me­dia is to hold our lead­ers ac­count­able and we must in­sist up­on trans­paren­cy. We be­lieve our news must be fair and bal­anced. Where there has been in­ac­cu­ra­cy, we cor­rect it. The me­dia is a re­flec­tion of our na­tion’s peo­ple. In a plur­al so­ci­ety such as ours with 36 ra­dio sta­tions, 3 dai­ly news­pa­pers, 10 lo­cal tele­vi­sion sta­tions and sub­scrip­tion tele­vi­sion, we seek to fill the mul­ti­tude of ap­petites. There is a dif­fer­ence be­tween “news” and com­men­tary, opin­ion and analy­sis which may have a per­spec­tive. These an­gles are meant to in­form the pub­lic we serve and to em­pow­er them be­cause they have the right to choose and make their own de­ci­sions on is­sues that af­fect their dai­ly lives.

The state­ment by Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley that “the me­dia has in­ter­ests to pro­tect” and his spe­cif­ic ref­er­ence to me­dia own­ers is con­cern­ing, es­pe­cial­ly when the cred­i­bil­i­ty of these en­ti­ties and the pub­lic’s re­liance on their news cov­er­age has stood the test of time. The gov­ern­ment al­so owns me­dia that com­petes with pri­vate en­ter­prise and that may be seen as self-serv­ing as it is sub­si­dized by tax-pay­ers.

Yet in­de­pen­dent me­dia has nev­er protest­ed the ex­is­tence of gov­ern­ment me­dia. In­de­pen­dent me­dia has al­so ap­plaud­ed the work of gov­ern­ment with the most re­cent ex­am­ple be­ing the re­sponse to Covid19. But when there is an is­sue that de­mands an­swers, we will not step back and leave our pub­lic in the dark.

The in­ter­est we pro­tect is the right of the peo­ple to know and to re­port with­out fear or favour. Our com­mit­ment to the vot­ing pub­lic and our search for truth is what we safe­guard. The me­dia and the gov­ern­ment have a shared mis­sion – to serve the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go. It is a com­mon ob­jec­tive that we are bound by dai­ly, in the in­ter­est of the high­est good of the pub­lic.

"There comes a time when one must take a po­si­tion that is nei­ther safe, nor politic, nor pop­u­lar, but he must take it be­cause con­science tells him it is right. We must walk on in the days ahead with an au­da­cious faith in the fu­ture.”
─ Dr. Mar­tin Luther King Jr.