PRESS FREEDOM

This country has been placed adversely under the international miscroscope, all too often bad-mouthed by some countries (eg the United States and the United Kingdom) and some influential organisations, that it was refreshing to see it ranked fifth in the world in Press freedom. It has been placed much higher, incidentally, than the United States, which was ranked 31st, and the United Kingdom at 27th, two countries which are always quick to issue negative advisories against Trinidad and Tobago. This is instructive, because Press freedom is the barometer by which you tend to measure most other freedoms. Nonetheless, we do not crow over the placings secured by the US and the UK, nor for that matter other countries such as Venezuela (96th), India (122nd), Russia (148th), China (161st), Cuba (165th) and North Korea (166th), but instead hope that their citizens and institutions can be increasingly proactive. The ranking was decided upon by Reporters Without Borders, an international organisation which used conclusions reached by reporters, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, who had filled out questionnaires, which sought to evaluate respect for Press freedom. Yet although Trinidadians and Tobagonians should be proud that the People’s National Movement Government’s respect for Press freedom has been internationally recognised, they should not take this freedom for granted.

That Press freedom exists in Trinidad and Tobago is not a favour granted by a Government in power to be withdrawn should it suit it to do so, but because of the continuing vigilance of the Media, an alert, literate public and the moral fibre and determination of TT’s NGOs. This is further buttressed by the major Media houses here being members of the Caribbean Publishers’ and Broadcasters’ Association, a regional group, and who draw on the collective, moral strength of the organisation whether in crisis or in calm. An example of this was in 1996, when Press freedom in Trinidad and Tobago was under serious threat. A plus for Press freedom in this country has been the increase in the number of daily newspapers and other publications in the past ten years. This has been supported through the coming on stream of several radio stations within the past decade and a half. It was made possible through a more liberalised approach, initiated by the 1986-1991 National Alliance for Reconstruction Government, as a result of the granting of licences and allocating of frequencies for the operating of these stations. Regrettably, some of the radio stations have seemingly tended to confuse licence with freedom of the Press. With freedom comes responsibility.

Unfortunately, however, following some years after the laudable initiatives of the NAR Administration, the 1995-2000 United National Congress Government stumbled on the critical issue of Press freedom. Media representatives were tacitly placed under stress, when at a rally of the ruling Party, UNC supporters were urged to “do them back.” In turn, Party supporters were entreated at the meeting and after, neither to buy nor to advertise in certain newspapers, and to boycott business houses which advertised in them. Calls by the United National Congress for the boycotting of certain newspapers by their supporters have again surfaced, an implied challenge of freedom of the Press and their supporters’ right to decide for themselves as free men and women what they should or should not read. What would have been Trinidad and Tobago’s ranking on Press freedom had the UNC the legislative authority to back up its calls?