Carib. media under siege
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 1996.
Brought to you by
From Guyana in the south to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the north, there have been complaints about a governmental sword of Damocles over the heads of some media organisations.
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) and the Caribbean Media Workers Association (CAMWORK) have been pushing for a better deal for the media houses, with the IAPA calling on the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Trinidad and Tobago to "cease their harassment of newspapers".
However, the Trinidad and Tobago situation worsened on 1 April with the sacking of the Managing Director of the Trinidad Guardian, Alwin Chow, whose paper has had strained relations with Prime Minister Basdeo Panday's United National Congress (UNC). What Chow described as "constructive" dismissal triggered the resignation of editor-in-chief Jones P. Madeira and other senior editorial staffers.
There is an on-going dispute between the Prime Minister and the Trinidad Publishing Company over the editorial policy of the Guardian. Panday had been pressing the paper to fire Madeira. Indicating his determination to achieve his objective, Panday vowed "to fight until the last battle is won".
Panday was reacting to an editorial in the Guardian which questioned his charge, made in the House of Representatives, that the opposition People's National Movement (PNM) planned to bring down his government by violence.
Subsequently, the Prime Minister accused Madeira of being a "racist" and called for his removal.
President of CAMWORK, Barbados-based journalist Rickey Singh, says the current predicament of the media is Trinidad and Tobago has to do with "political pressures and influence". Singh says CAMWORK is monitoring what "seems to be a deteriorating climate as it relates to theGuardian and the International Communications Network". ICN is the parent company of state-owned Trinidad and Tobago Television and the state National Broadcasting Service.
"Having received telephone calls from our colleagues in Trinidad, we have requested all relevant information from them, including a memorandum sent by the entire editorial staff of Trinidad and Tobago Television to the outgoing Chief Executive Officer of ICN, Louis Lee Sing," the CAMWORK president told the Caribbean News Agency.
Singh suggests the CEO's departure next month is an issue of controversy regarding the appointment of a new board of directors by the Panday administration. One major problem has been a new contract offered to journalist Gideon Hanoomansingh, who took a leave of absence from the profession to contest a seat in the last general election on a UNC platform.
"We are not questioning the morality of the contract offered to Mr. Hanoomansingh, but we question the modalities and principles of the action," Singh explains, adding that the board may have violated the rights of a TTT editor, Tony Fraser.
"Clearly, the whole thing smacks of hidden political influences and pressures," Singh told CANA.
He locates the resignation of Chow in the dispute the prime minister and his administration have been having with the Guardian newspaper.
Against this background, there have been calls from media bosses in the country to have government put in place a Freedom of Information Act, update the libel laws and establish a committee to deal with complaints against the media. The libel laws in Trinidad and Tobago date back to 1846. Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Communications Network (CCN), Ken Gordon, has joined with two other regional publishers to set up a complaints mechanism for the media.
In a report on Trinidad, the IAPA said that "since assuming power in November last year there has been a number of developments questioning the commitment of the new government to press freedom".
It said Prime Minister Panday "made intimidating telephone calls to a number of senior staff members of the Guardian newspaper" and followed this up by calling on principal shareholders of the newspaper demanding dismissal of the editor-in-chief.
Complicating the entire issue, Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj announced that the government was preparing a Green Paper on the role and functions of the media in Trinidad and Tobago for public comment.
