Kamla pledges to protect media freedom

The leader of the United national Congress (UNC) on Monday pledged that a UNC led government will ensure that the media in Trinidad and Tobago will remain free and protected from any form of harassment and intimidation.

"We will defend media freedom with all our strength and legislative capacity because we know that without a free media our democracy would be deformed," Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in a message to mark World Press Freedom Day.

She said the UNC "reiterates our commitment to freedom of the media in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean region."

Persad-Bissessar added, "We have seen attempts to encroach on this right by the present government with acts of intimidation and statements from Prime Minister Patrick Manning suggesting that there is some kind of conspiracy in the media against him.

"We condemn any such attempts to interfere with the rights of the media because we accept that Journalism's first obligation is to the truth and its first loyalty is to the citizens.

"We insist that no government has the right to take away or infringe in any way on the right of the media to operate freely. Our constitution enshrines the right to a free press and the freedom of expression and we must accept no less."

The UNC leader said media’s role is to seek out the issues on behalf of the people and report on them as fairly and objectively as they can "so that the people can arrive at an informed opinion on which they can act."

She said free media are an essential component of every democratic society because a free press will raise issues of concern "in a marketplace of ideas in which our citizens would be able to judge for themselves what is right and what isn’t."

Democracy can only flourish when there is a free and independent media, she said. "Every government - especially in small emerging nations such as ours - owes a responsibility to the people to ensure that they have access to a free and unfettered media," she added.

She promised that a UNC-led government would guarantee that no media organization or its workers are ever harassed or intimated.

"We will protect your right and we will expect that you will continue to operate without fear or favour to make your contribution to the creation of a just society."