PORT OF SPAIN, August 2009  (IPS)  – The Trinidad and Tobago government is finding itself against the wall amid allegations that it is attempting to curb press freedoms in this oil rich twin island republic.  At the centre of the allegations are the outcome of a meeting the Patrick Manning government held late last month with the Media Association of  Trinidad and Tobago (MATT).the London-based Privy Council – the country’s highest court – that criticised it for continuing to flout the laws of the country. In an eight-page judgment Monday, the British Law Lords ruled in favour of an opposition legislator who had contended that the government was not complying with the Freedom of Information Act of 1999.
 

At the end of the one-hour deliberation both parties issued separate statements, which contradicting each other left the media asking the question “who is telling the truth.”

MATT requested the meeting after Prime Minister Manning used a so-called “public education” rally to criticise the media over its role in educating the public.

The accusation by Manning is not new. Last November, he “dropped in” on a radio station to complain about the “unprofessional conduct” of two broadcasters, and warned that he is prepared to go to the courts if he is
“aggrieved by anything the media does in the future.”

MATT said it had requested the meeting because, it too had concerns about government-media relations and was not about to “engage in any public row with the Prime Minister.”

But, prior to the meeting Ramesh Deosaran, university professor and independent legislator, questioned the motives behind the talks.

“Are people who now buy newspapers, listen to radio and watch television to believe that after this MATT-PM meeting, the media as a whole and its brave and bold staff will go on a penance of good behaviour?” he wrote in a newspaper article.

The response to his question came swiftly. The statement issued by the government after the talks said that while a “variety of matters were discussed, a significant agreement was reached by the participants – that the media should be accountable to an independent bodyà As a result it was determined that dialogue would take place between the Ministries of Information and Public Administration and MATT in order to formulate suggestions about how such an entity would operate.”

But in an immediate response MATT said that it was distancing itself from “any reported agreement to the setting up of an independent body to which media practitioners would be accountable,” insisting, “there was no agreement for any such body.”

MATT President Marlan Hopkinson said he was “shocked and surprised” at the government statement, adding “the media association wants to make it abundantly clear that there was never any agreement to set up such a body.”

The Trinidad Guardian newspaper said that the MATT-extended olive branch had failed to have the intended effect.

“With MATT now suggesting that the Prime Minister’s Office may have misconstrued what transpired or is being economical with the truth, relations between the association and the Government are worse than ever before,” it said in an editorial.

Another daily newspaper, the Express, said that the Prime Minister “seems to have confused the media’s duty to inform the public,” and that a “Government committed to press freedom would update the country’s 19th century libel laws, and expand rather than restrict the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.”

Former chairman of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Communications Network (CCN), Ken Gordon, said the meeting allowed the Prime Minister “to reveal his desire to control media content.”

Urging the population to “strongly resist” the government motives, Gordon acknowledged that some media houses abuse freedom of the press and freedom of thought and expression as enshrined and protected by the Trinidad and Tobago constitution.

But, he said “the fact is the Constitution clearly intended the Courts to be the final arbiter on issues which relate to Press Freedom, and no so called independent body can give the same degree of confidence in its independence.”

Trinidad and Tobago is the only Caribbean country where freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitution, and respected Caribbean journalist Rickey Singh has warned the government not to follow the example of the previous administration that had produced a “Green Paper” as part of their efforts to regulate the media.

“The current PNM administration is veering into dangerous territory,” said Singh, the former head of the now defunct Caribbean Media Workers Association (CAMWORK).

“I seriously doubt that we are going to see any time soon, if ever, the creation of a so-called ‘independent’ media monitoring body in Trinidad and Tobago with the intention to [punish] local media for perceived ‘irresponsibility’ and ‘shortcomings.’ Such a mechanism is a bad idea and it is best ignored,” Singh said.

Ironically, critics of the government are now pointing to the latest ruling by