FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Yesterday’s observance of World Press Freedom Day probably went unnoticed by most people in Trinidad and Tobago, a country in which the existence of three daily newspapers, several weeklies, three television stations and more than a dozen radio stations are both a result and guarantors of Press Freedom. In turn, because Press Freedom is taken for granted by citizens here, National Journalism Week which is being celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago and coincides with World Press Freedom Day does not appear to have stirred the level of interest that should be its due. This country is fortunate, not merely to have a more formidable Media than many other Third World countries, but to have “Freedom of the Press” and its twin “Freedom of thought and expression” as two of the fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in its Constitution.

Admittedly, Press Freedom is a commodity that can be limited or suspended during a State of Emergency. Nonetheless, this freedom faced its greatest challenge since Independence not from any of the several declared States of Emergency but on the part of politicians and other interests who want no criticism of their actions. Another occasion was the attempted coup by the Jamaat al Muslimeen on July 27, 1990. A television station was taken over by the insurgents and an attempt made to seize another. Both were in close proximity to radio stations, while one shared a border with a newspaper.

As National Journalism Week is celebrated it would be good not only for journalists but the general public to remember that a legal battle by a Trinidad and Tobago newspaper, the Port of Spain Gazette, which ended in a Privy Council ruling was a contributor to the strengthening of Press Freedom, not simply in this country, but throughout the Commonwealth. Any inhibiting of the Freedom of the Press is regarded, generally, by journalists as an inhibiting of the public’s right to know, to be informed. Meanwhile, the newspaper, the television station or radio station, not unlike any other area of business, needs to earn income in order to survive. Sometimes Governments and some business houses as well, resentful of criticism, however well meaning, have been known to withdraw advertisements as a means of restricting the income of Media houses and pressuring them to conform.

There were other means adopted of inhibiting the public’s right to know. For example, the Port of Spain Gazette was required early in the 19th century and up to 1861 to pay a then special tax. It was a tax on newspapers, and was in keeping with a similar tax on newspapers in the United Kingdom, branded then, and correctly, as a “tax on knowledge.” Several activities have been hosted for National Journalism Week by the Commonwealth Journalists Association in conjunction with the Conference of Caribbean Media and the University of the West Indies.

They will include sessions with topics of interest both to journalists and the wider community, for example, “The Quota Question - Legislate Local Content or Not,” “Reporting Under Siege,” “Ethics and Conduct - When ‘story at any price’ is too high,” and “The New Breed - Breaking the Mould”. Newsday welcomes National Journalism Week and its contribution to the profession of journalism, even as it salutes the men and women whose fight through the years have made World Freedom Day both a reality and meaningful.