TACTICAL RETREAT BY TATT?

Hopefully, it is not a mere tactical retreat, and instead of TATT continuing to commit the mistake it made in not seeking a direct input of media practitioners and publishers and broadcasters re the first draft it will have them involved in discussions on the preparation of the second draft. Merely to invite the media to another round of consultations on a redrafted Code will not be enough. Yet this is apparently what the Telecommunications Authority which clearly has not learned from the mistakes of the immediate past, plans on doing.

For TATT to say that based on information it had received in the first round of consultations which followed the publication of its Draft Code, it had decided on a rethink, conveys in the absence of any declared intention to have direct and full involvement of the media that it is prepared to be selective. The signal is that it plans to adopt an independent position with respect to what it chooses for inclusion in the second draft.

Should this happen, even the promised second round of consultations will not be what is needed, particularly as the inference is that the Telecommunications Authority will then proceed to finalise the National Broadcasting Code.

There is the risk that the final document may still be perceived, as was the first draft, as offending against Chapter 1, Part 1, 4 (i) and (k) of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, "The Recognition And Protection Of Fundamental Human Rights And Freedoms." This can lead to needless challenges in the courts and avoidable legal fees.

Meanwhile, any demonstrated infringing of "freedom of thought and expression" and "freedom of the Press" may in turn open itself to challenge in another place if only because it would effect a change to an entrenched clause in the Constitution. We recommend, indeed insist, on a meeting of minds on this matter and that two of the parties involved should be media practitioners and the publishers and broadcasters. Media practitioners have a representative body, the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, while the publishers and broadcasters' organisation is the Publishers and Broadcasters Association.

There should be full inclusion, with respect to what is to be drafted, rather than invitations to comment on a draft prepared by individuals who do not have a clue about the matter and worse, apparently do not recognise that they do not know.