‘Public must see new broadcast policy’

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) yesterday said the media and the public must be privy to any laws relating to a new broadcast policy, and  legislating on “divisiveness” could take away the media’s basic right to freedom of choice. The TTPBA’s comments were in response to statements by Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Thursday. At the sod turning ceremony for the construction of the new Government Information Service (GIS) in St Clair, Manning said a “new broadcast policy was before Parliament and if there was any breach, the law would be effected.” He said the policy reminds stakeholders “that ours is a plural society and the airwaves must not be used to ferment any form of divisiveness or tension.” He stressed that the “law would be applied to any violations of this important principle.”

The TTPBA’s statement says the legal interpretation of “divisiveness” could mean “that no media should be allowed to have a particular ethnic or religious format.” It said it supported niche marketing, which is successful and effective in promoting and selling any product or service, including in the media, which specifically defined target markets. But the TTPBA said “legislation on this could take away our basic right to freedom of choice.” The TTPBA pointed out that the media agrees and practises that “people should not be slandered or degraded based on race, religion, sex or physical handicaps.”

It said that already the Media Complaints Council’s (MCC) Code of Practice addresses the matter under “discrimination,” so should the media err in any way, the public has a form of redress by taking their complaints to the MCC. The TTPBA also reiterated that the objective of media houses, as members of the TTPBA, “continues to be to treat all citizens with courtesy and fairness and to respect the rights of others. The most valuable asset we the media have is public interest. This is earned, and can be maintained only by adherence to the highest possible standards of public service and integrity.”