PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley says he found it “difficult” to accept the allegation of there being no press freedom in Trinidad and Tobago after he had been called upon to state the criteria used by his office to allow journalists to cover press briefings at the Diplomatic Centre.
“If there’s a press conference at the Prime Minister’s residence and we invite TV6, CNC3, TTT, Channel 5, even Loop of the modern era, I find it difficult to accept that it is said that if I don’t allow every media Mary and Johnny that there is no press freedom in Trinidad and Tobago,” Rowley told journalists attending a function organized by his ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) on Monday night.
Rowley said he “will preserve the prerogative of the Prime Minister’s office to invite mainstream media to Prime Minister’s press conferences,” adding, “when we think we have 12 or 14 media houses, we think we’re covering the ground very well, and therefore tonight we plead ‘not guilty.’
He said that by law, government information is gazetted and shared with the public and, in some cases, with daily newspapers as required.
Last weekend, the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) said its membership had raised questions over the criteria for inviting journalists to cover press briefings at the Diplomatic Centre after some said they were barred from participating in a news conference there.
“The MATT executive agrees that concerns regarding the selection process for attendance at the Diplomatic Centre are valid and must be addressed to ensure fair access to all media practitioners in the public interest.
“With the relaxation of pandemic-related restrictions, the Prime Minister’s office has yet to provide either guidance or criteria for access to press conferences held at the Diplomatic Centre,” MATT said, adding that “if interested media houses are denied access to question the Prime Minister about his announcements and a list of specially invited media guides invitations, there should be clarity about what qualifies one media house as “special” over another.
“All practicing journalists should have an opportunity to question the government in person, and if space or social distancing is a concern, as it was during pandemic restrictions, then an opportunity to rotate journalists for access should be the norm,” MATT said in its statement.
The Trinidad Express newspaper, in an editorial, said a “transparent policy” regarding media access to the Prime Minister’s news conferences is long overdue.
“In the absence of policy clarity, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) risks being accused of pursuing a dangerous path of arbitrarily deciding what constitutes a media house and who is a journalist or not.”
The paper said that the backlash against the OPM after it denied the host of a current affairs program access to the Prime Minister’s news conference “was the inevitable result of the OPM’s lack of policy and failure to move in step with a changing media landscape.
“Until the broadcast media sector was liberalized roughly 35 years ago, the national media environment was fairly uncomplicated with one television station, two radio stations, two daily newspapers, and about four weeklies.”
But the paper said that with a radical change in the media landscape taking hold since 1987 and while it accepts “that there may be logistical challenges, such as space,” the “OPM has the option of resorting to a hybrid system which would allow accredited journalists to pose questions either in person or virtually.
“The opportunity to question public officials, including the PM, is core to the work of the media. No self-respecting media house would accept being relegated to the role of a mere spectator watching live coverage of the PM’s address. The role of the journalist is not to regurgitate the statements of public officials, but to represent the public interest in seeking answers to the public’s questions,” the editorial said, urging the various stakeholders to work out a “that is fair and transparent, and which recognizes its responsibility to facilitate the media in a country with the proud boast of having Press Freedom written into its Constitution.”
But Rowley told the function on Monday night that he “heard a suggestion that what I should do is rotate the invitation if a fixed number is a number that we’re using, and I would like to ask CNC3 if would you accept being turned out of the press conference so that the latest blogger who calls himself the media with a name and a jersey comes in?
“What was more interesting is that even as we…invite all the main media houses in Trinidad and Tobago…if I don’t invite every Tom, Dick, and Harry from the media, then that is confirmation that there is no press freedom in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley reminded the journalists that he had chaired a committee that recommended live broadcasts from Parliament and also began regular press briefings during his time in Opposition.
“I have spent hours…accepting and responding to questions from all the main media houses, and then I’m told that if some…disturber is not allowed onto the compound, important questions will not be asked. And that begs the question; if such miscreant is not in, is the mainstream media saying that there is some important question they have not asked?”
Rowley also questioned whether the Opposition also grants access and opportunities for asking similarly.
“Does the media have any interest in putting questions for anybody else? We have an Opposition Leader who hasn’t taken questions from the press for 12 years.
“I told you to ask the Opposition Leader who removed the clause from the OAS contract that gave away $921 million that the government has to find back. Where is the questioning of the Opposition Leader about that?”
“So I have to conclude that you’re very selective in the questions you ask and who you ask the questions to, but then, of course, you are the free media.”
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