Playing down crime?

ONE would have thought that by now the UNC has had its fill of making idiotic charges against the media. After all, what did the party and its leader achieve by their on-going warfare against the Press when they held government office? Who did ex-PM Panday persuade when he accused newspapers of printing lies, half truths and innuendoes? Indeed, what did he achieve when he called for a boycott of Newsday, except to help in boosting the circulation of this newspaper? But then we have all come to accept the fact that attacking the Press is an old, instinctive and convenient stratagem for politicians to which they frequently resort when a bankruptcy of ideas sets in or when they need a ready-made ploy to impress their constituencies and intimidate the media.

So now the UNC has come up with the charge that the country’s newspapers are deliberately playing down the reporting of crime. This attack is not the result of a spur-of-the-moment outburst from a UNC parliamentarian. The accusation has been made in a considered statement issued by the Opposition party on Wednesday. It charges that since Crime Committee chairman Ken Gordon met with media houses last month, crime had been taken off the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. The UNC sees this as another attempt by the media to be “soft on the PNM Government” and considers that we have become part of the Government’s public relations machinery. And as if the release was not enough, the charge has been voiced publicly by UNC Senator Wade Mark.

As far as Newsday is concerned, we find ourselves at a loss to respond to such an accusation since it is not only patently untrue but it also amounts to a gross insult to those who manage the country’s independent media houses. If, in their current state of confusion, UNC officials see the media as part of the Government’s public relations machinery it is only because the Opposition party itself has had little to offer the country in terms of inspiring ideas, insightful analysis, progressive ideas and constructive proposals. Newsday, for one, could hardly be expected to support or comment favourably on the UNC’s blanket policy of non-cooperation as a strategy for demanding constitutional reform above every thing else. Indeed, the Opposition party’s latest attack on the Press may well be seen as another reflection of its internal difficulties and its inability to rise to the challenge of a credible Opposition, further evidence of its urgent need for change and revitalisation.

This appears to be the case because no regular reader of TT’s daily newspapers will be impressed by the absurd charge that reports of crime have been taken off the front pages at the behest of the Government. The accusation, in fact, becomes comical when placed alongside the concern recently expressed by Senior Police Officers that the country’s newspapers were giving undue prominence to violent crime and calling upon the nation’s Press to be less sensational in its reporting. But we have even questioned this view by the Police since the incidence of major crime is a primary worry of TT citizens and our reporting of it contributes in no way to its cause but, instead, serves to keep the country informed. This newspaper takes pride in its independence; we reject the UNC charge which is easily disproved by a cursory glance at our front pages over the last few weeks and during these anxious times; nor do we accept the view that we are sensationalising the violence that besets our society. There can be no let up in the fight against this scourge; that is our opinion.