Government of T&T to review media rules

The government of Trinidad and Tobago has asked distinguished media icon Ken Gordon to chair a committee of media practitioners to examine specific guidelines aimed at improving media standards and quality. Information Minister Neil Parsanlal announced the move in the Senate Tuesday.

The government has been under intense pressure, accused of threatening media freedom, since Prime Minister Patrick Manning's visit to a radio station to complain about a news broadcast.

Gordon was one of the people who said Manning was wrong, but at the same time said blamed some media practitioners for their unprofessional conduct.

Parsanlal told the Senate the PNM government has always supported press freedom, noting that a free media is a vital part of a free society. The former journalist denied that recent actions or statements by Government members are intimidatory and indicative of a Government at war with the media.

“This Government is not anti-media, nor does it expect a pro-Government stance from any media house...we require no favours. What the Government desires is the time-honoured journalistic practice of accuracy in reporting and balance in coverage by the media,” Parsanlal said.

He suggested that sections of the media have judged the present parliamentary opposition inadequate "and have decided to assume the role of the real opposition to the Government".

He said, “That is their right to do so and this Government will defend that right. Members of the media and media houses must however, stop the pretense of being apolitical.”

The minister observed that, “In the same manner that some commentators who have weighed in on this issue have pointed to what obtains in other jurisdictions, those media houses are professional enough to declare their positions on issues. Government will welcome such declarations as part of the inexorable march to maturity as a society.”

Parsanlal said, “There is almost unanimous recognition that the quality and standards of local media have fallen over the years.”

He blamed a proliferation of media and competition "among media houses" for putting journalistic ethics at peril. The "first and and fastest does not always equate to accurate or balanced,” Parsanlal added.

The minister called on the media to look beyond profit and invest in improving the quality of their product and in training and development of their staff.

It is against this background, he said, that the government has asked the former chairman of Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) to chair the proposed team comprising media owners and workers.

He said the team would examine "what specific guidelines might, under the circumstances, be a middle ground between the two varying positions, but which would still achieve the ultimate objective of improving media standards and quality.”