Public should know unscrupulous individuals

THE EDITOR: Something hit me as I was walking to work the other day and it wasn’t a brick.  I had been waiting anxiously to see which former UNC Ministers were being arrested on that fateful Friday, following media reports the previous evening linking $1.2 Billion and some offshore bank accounts belonging to these (alleged) crooks. By late afternoon Friday and statements from the Commissioner of Police and DPP, much to my disappointment the arrests were not to be.  Some individuals had taken the entire country for a ride.  Who plotted and for what purpose is still unknown to the public at large.  But back to that which hit me.  Part of the misleading reports insisted that already one person had fled the country and was now in the safety of Costa Rica (a country without an extradition treaty with TT).  The other was that warrants for arrest of 15 persons were already issued.

It struck me that if all ports were on alert and warrants issued, then these individuals were considered “most wanted”, and there was no reason to not name them.  There would also be no reason to not name our Costa Rican crook in the process since it would be highly unlikely he/she would return to clear his/her name.  To date, the entire country is still wondering who the 15 individuals with warrants hanging over their heads are, because the media has not done anything to clear the matter.  The reports of unidentified sources, no-named former ministers and 75 percent of the airport funds should have included “bogus” as well.

It is unfortunate that media reporting is now suspect and cannot be trusted.  Clearly what passes for Journalism in TT may be equivalent of the National Enquirer.  Either there was collusion on the part of the journalists and their “sources”, or irresponsibility, both of which are totally unacceptable.  What makes matters worse is that this was no ordinary court case where a journalist has to protect a single source.  This is a case that will determine the future of the entire country, and media practitioners ought to have been even more scrupulous in their reporting.

One has to wonder if the “lies, half-truths and innuendoes” Basdeo Panday fiercely complained about when he was Prime Minister were indeed as he said. Unless the media takes steps to correct the perception that it is an unwitting or even willing accomplice through which misinformation, deception and political propaganda is spread, we are headed for trouble.  If already the public does not trust politicians, and to a great extent the police, then the last bastion of trust must be the media.  God help us all if you (the media) fail.

WAYNE JAGGERNAUTH
Loughborough University
United Kingdom