Caribbean News

PM’s Visit to Radio Station Irks Journalists By Peter Richards

 PORT OF SPAIN, Nov (IPS) – When he “dropped in” on the Power 102 radio station last weekend to complain about the “unprofessional conduct” of two local broadcasters, Prime Minister Patrick Manning insisted that he was exercising his right as an ordinary citizen.
 
 He later told reporters that he would appeal to the courts if he is “aggrieved by anything the media does in the future”. However, Manning insists that the visit to the radio station was not meant to intimidate anyone or trample on free expression in the country.
 
 By his own account, the prime minister said he had been sitting in a barber shop when he became incensed at the newscast, which was interspersed with commentary critical of the recent increase in gas prices announced by his government.
 
 “…Any suggestion that I hustled out of the barber saloon, drove up to the radio station and stormed the station to put the best face on it is somewhat exaggerated…on my way home I just dropped into the station,” Manning later said.
 
 “All I did was to exercise a right that is available to all citizens, including the prime minister. There could be absolutely nothing wrong with that,” he said.
 
 But press freedom groups and others are unconvinced and warn of a threat to free expression on the island.
 
 “While we agree Mr. Patrick Manning has the same rights as any other citizen, a prime minister has greater power, which should be exercised in the public interest, with due care and responsibility,” said the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) in a statement.
 
 Describing Manning’s trip to the radio station as “unprecedented”, MATT said the visit was “inappropriate and unnecessary” in light of the fact that it could be perceived as an attempt to intimidate or to stifle freedom of the press.
 
 “The association feels the prime minister has available to him many avenues of redress and should have perhaps considered the perception of his actions,” MATT president Marlan Hopkinson told IPS.
 
 The Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) said that it was unacceptable for an organisation or person “who is of the view that he has been wronged” to “enter the premises of a broadcaster to have the incorrect information corrected”.
 
 “In a democracy, to have a prime minister do so is unacceptable as it can be interpreted as an abuse of power and a threat to freedom of the press, because such action may be perceived as intimidatory,” it said in a statement, adding that “there are mechanisms in place that the public can use to have incorrect information corrected”.
 
 The regional media umbrella group, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), said the move “sends a wrong message since it gives the impression that the Honourable Prime Minister was using the weight of his office to intimidate the radio station and its management.”
 
 But chairman of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and a senior Cabinet minister, Conrad Enill, defended Manning’s visit and was highly critical of the media in the oil-rich twin island republic.
 
 “”Nowhere in the world is news reporting as bad as here in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said, adding “there are many times when I have done interviews and the news carried was not accurate or when a more sensationalistic angle is taken.”
 
 Enill noted that the government had provided licences to 34 radio stations and seven television stations to inform the public.
 
 “We want to make sure the public is getting the right information and that is why we gave out those licences. But if you have inaccurate information being pushed in the public domain then we will not support that,” he said.
 
 While he stopped short of saying that the media should adopt a pro-government agenda, Enill said he wanted to remind the population that inaccurate statements would affect the functioning of the government.
 
 The management of the radio station has since suspended the two broadcasters, insisting that the decision was not influenced by the visit of the prime minister.
 
 “A presenter and newscaster acted in a manner that was unprofessional and not accepted by the company. We have standards which we’ve been following for the last three years and they broke that,” said O’ Brian Haynes, the station’s vice-president.
 
 Manning has sought to distance himself from the action taken by the management of the radio station, even as he told reporters that he planned to visit “offending” stations in the future “as the spirit moves me”.
 
 “What is worse is that too many off the commentators either in the newspapers, or in the media or on the radio do not respect our institutions. It is a question of being disrespectful to institutions and authority and pursing a course of action that could cause the image of these institutions and individuals to be tarnished in the minds of those in whose interest they are set up to serve and therefore they could become completely non-effective. That is the risk we run,” he said.
 
 But the Express newspaper brushed aside those remarks, describing them as “self-serving nonsense that could only have been uttered by a politician power-struck enough to have come to believe that he is the country and the country is he”.
 
 “In democracies such as ours where freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed, prime ministers know it would be politically disastrous to directly attack the notion of press freedom, not least when charges of dictatorial intent are being made against them. So they prefer to cloak that insidious intent by wrapping themselves in the flag,” the paper said in an editorial.
 
 Manning has said that he intends to take legal action against a local newspaper that reported on his visit to the radio station and both MATT and the ACM said they had no objections. The prime minister “had every tight to consult his lawyers whenever he feels aggrieved”.
 
 But even as he is confronted with criticism over his actions, Manning sarcastically insisted: “It can’t be the government respecting the media and the media disrespecting the government and particularly its prime minister.
It can’t be that”. 
 
 
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