Asking ill-informed questions

THE EDITOR: But seriously, was the reporter serious? On Friday May 28, around 9.05 in the morning, a reporter requested a comment on ASPIRE’s proposal on abortion. It was logical that I needed to see the proposal before commenting. So I politely asked that the proposal be e-mailed to me so that I can make appropriate comments. Lo and behold or should I say, as expected, the reporter never saw the proposal and was not in possession of the said proposal.

The reporter stated that she was only doing a follow-up story and had no knowledge of its contents. She still persisted in trying to obtain a comment from me. I thus asked that she speak with the original writer in order to get the proposal, only to find out that the original writer also did not have the said proposal. And despite my simple request not being fulfilled, the reporter still persisted in trying to obtain a comment. Over four days later, and not further correspondence received, as expected. How therefore can one expect any comment or feedback from the public? The newspaper does not have the proposal and thus cannot share its contents with the public. The reporters are unaware of its contents but are willing to write articles and worse yet, are trying to solicit views from the public.

The media must understand its role in society, which is to educate and inform the public from an unbiased stance. In Trinidad and Tobago, the media delves on sensationalism and mediocrity. The editors must demand higher levels of reporterism that is based on facts, investigations and documents. Writing stories from behind a desk with a telephone must be curtailed. But seriously, journalists and journalism standards seem to be absent in TT?

PHILIP AYOUNG-CHEE FRCS
Port-of-Spain