Unbiased reporting by Newsday

THE EDITOR: Crime in TT is really a one-sided affair. On May 2, 2005 according to Newsday, four prominent persons were charged with trafficking drugs. Newsday also carried a photo of an unidentified woman who pelted an apple at the photographer to prevent him from taking photos of the accused. To begin with, this woman’s behaviour would have attracted much criticism normally. No one seems to have taken up that issue. Again on May 6, two of the accused appeared before the magistrate and were again carried by Newsday alone. Photos of the court matters on both May 2 and May 7 were conspicuously absent from both the Express and Guardian newspapers.

If these persons were so prominent how come it was not carried by two thirds of the daily press? This kind of bias has been levelled at the media for decades where they refuse to publish negative (but true) news about a section of the population when the population knows that they have so much cocoa in the sun. The dailies are quick to publish crime or allegations against the ruling political parties but this case has shown how easy it is to cover up many ugly facts in TT. Also, on May 6, Magistrate Rajendra Narine lashed out at juries in general and a particular jury for setting an accused kidnapper free.

Well, Magistrate Narine should be well aware that justice does not begin in the courtroom. If the crime mess has to be cleaned up in TT it must start with the media. We must be able to tell the elite in this country that many a time they are the ones at fault. So, just maybe the juries are telling us that since the “big boys” are involved in crime and are not prosecuted then we will release the small time crook. Thanks to the Newsday for carrying better coverage.

D JOSEPH
Port-of-Spain