Minister calls for apology from LA Times

In a letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times, National Security Minister Martin Joseph yesterday called for an apology to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and “the immediate retraction of an article published in the January 2 issue of that newspaper. Joseph took to task the article on the kidnapping situation in Trinidad and Tobago, describing it as “incredibly biased, incorrect and uninformed.” The article was headlined “Kidnappings send a chill through sunny Trinidad,” written by Carol Williams.

Joseph said the article was clearly devoid of any thorough investigation and begged the question as to whether any amount of time was spent analysing the country’s socio-economic dynamics or even speaking to a wide cross-section of the population. Joseph described as “disturbing” the quotes attributed to Saran Kissondan, (kidnap victim) “which contain extremely serious allegations of wrong-doing and complicity” against the police officers investigating his kidnapping. He said Kissondan was contacted and had “categorically denied” making any such statements to the author of the article, Carol Williams, or any representative of the Los Angeles Times.

He said absent from the article was the fact that Foreign Direct Investments in Trinidad and Tobago continued to be robust and that the number of arrivals had increased steadily in 2004 to 766,383. “It is clear that investors continue to have confidence in Trinidad and Tobago’s overall socio-economic environment,” Joseph said. He said Trinidad and Tobago recorded 28 kidnappings for ransom in 2004 “which is unacceptable,” but which represented a 45 percent reduction from the high of 51 in 2003. He added that this was the result of both the efforts of the Police Service and the government’s provision of the resources and tools required. “Your article inaccurately reported these official statistics,” Joseph stated.

He said the article was also silent on the fact that over the past 14 months, the government began transforming the Police Service with the introduction of specialised training in anti-kidnapping, hostage negotiations, money laundering and other modern anti-crime techniques used in the developed world. Joseph concluded his letter by saying that he found it disturbing that in the aftermath of integrity issues at CBS and the New York Times, a major media outlet would not thoroughly establish the veracity of its feature articles.