A NEED TO KNOW

Although Trinidad and Tobago has been placed among the top 21 countries in the world in Press freedom, out of 167 countries studied by Paris-based media freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), somehow by inference there is no room for smugness. Particularly, as an overseas news report on the media freedom index, published in Newsday on Thursday, even as it praised northern Europe for its media freedom, has offered for international consumption that Canada which placed 18th and the United States, 22nd, both have Press freedom minuses. Canada which slipped ten spots from its 2003 standing has had its drop in this year’s rankings attributed by RWB to, inter alia, a raid by police on the home of a journalist!

It is unfortunate that there has been no RWB comment on Trinidad and Tobago’s position quoted in the news report, by which we can be guided. Trinidad and Tobago does not have a history of harassment of journalists, and while there were examples in the late 1990s of a leading Government official urging his followers to “do them back,” meaning journalists, and a demand that advertisements be withheld from one newspaper, this certainly did not apply in 2004. However, there must have been cause for concern not only by those who compiled the media freedom index but, perhaps moreso, by those who catalogued what they perceived to be minuses and were moved to make these known to the RWB group. What Trinidad and Tobago should do is seek to obtain from RWB its arguments, adverse or otherwise, not only for 2004, but the entire three-year period that Press freedom has been under the organisation’s miscroscope. The studied comments of RWB, particularly the approach employed by it in reaching its conclusions, should be evaluated, and in this way the country, or more precisely officialdom, would be better positioned to appreciate not merely where and how it stumbled but how it can right itself.

As we stated earlier, this country does not have a history of journalists being harassed, and while there have been isolated instances of reporters and photographers being jostled by police officers these must be seen as aberrations and not indicators of a planned policy of a Police Service. Indeed the local media is vibrant and would never tolerate such behaviour. Cabinet, from the Prime Minister to Junior Ministers have been reasonably accessible on the wide ranging negatives and positives facing Trinidad and Tobago. Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s weekly post Cabinet news conference, though more filled with political spin that real useful information, has been a feature of the Administration, and there is no record of a journalist, whether reporter or photographer having been blacklisted. Nor for that matter, any of the country’s three dailies, several weeklies, five television stations and 29 radio stations. The Commissioner of Police, Trevor Paul, has also held Press conferences to deal with matters (pertaining to crime) of area or national concern, though these too tend to be short on real details.

Meanwhile, since RWB, in pointing out that eight countries shared the top spot emphasised that the “greatest Press freedom is found in northern Europe (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway)” and pointedly described there as “A haven of peace for journalists” then, by inference, every other area or country, including Trinidad and Tobago, is somewhat less than “A haven of peace for journalists.” There is a need to know the yardstick employed by the RWB as any hint of a lack of Press freedom, particularly in a third world nation, as is Trinidad and Tobago, by an international media freedom watchdog can hurt our image. And while, it is true that our country is blessed with crude and natural gas, both in great demand today internationally, it can nonetheless impact negatively on our ability to attract labour intensive investments. Meanwhile, officialdom should indulge in some soul searching media freedom self-assessment to detemine, until briefed by RWB, exactly where it stumbled and seek to right itself. The Government should also put its money where its mouth is and give real meaning and effectiveness, not to mention openness, to the Freedom of Information law.