CCN TV6 has asked the Acting Commissioner of Police to investigate Colm Imbert, the PNM candidate for Diego Martin North East, who has called on PNM supporters to "deal with the media".It a letter to James Philbert requesting the he probe the television station said Imbert's call is a criminal offence of incitement to breach the peace.
Prominent attorney Dana Seetahal, agrees with the position taken by TV6, stating that Imbert's comments can endanger the safety of media workers covering political meetings.
She told the Trinidad Expres Philbert must quickly investigate the complaint and added that he must also publicly clarify his statements and denounce any violence against media workers.
"There is no doubt that there is a case to investigate. To tell PNM supporters to ’deal with the media’ is very dangerous as members of the audience can interpret it in different ways," Seetahal said.
She added, "Some may see it meaning to physically deal with the media and with the upsurge of violent crime in recent years, this could mean something lethal.
On Friday, a TV6 News crew a cameraman and a reporter who went to Woodford Square to cover a meeting of PNM activists said they were verbally abused and chased away from the Square by hostile PNM supporters, who accused them, and the media in general, of being biased.
Seetahal noted that this was the same offence that Muslimeen Leader Yasin Abu Bakr was arrested for in November, 2005, when he allegedly incited others to breach the peace at an Eid sermon at his Mucurapo mosque.
The Trinidad Guardian carried a story on May 21, headlined: ’Imbert to PNMites: Deal with media.’
The report quoted Imbert as saying: "You must deal with them, this media that we have, this television station...I watched TV6 tonight and the first story is Jack Warner..second story is Kamla...I eh see PNM yet you know."
In the letter to Philbert, dated May 21, TV6’s general manager, Shida Bholai,stated: "In this context, according to the report, he identified TV6 as a television station with whose reporting he is not satisfied.
"We are most disturbed by these utterances, if they were in fact made by the Honourable Minister.
"These statements, at the very least, are to be interpreted as a call by the speaker to his party followers to show their disfavour of this media house by incitement to them to commit acts of violence against its employees, servants and/or agents in the discharge of their respective duties, namely while they are present at these public meetings or elsewhere...
"Further, we note with great concern that there has been no attempt by the Honourable Minister of Works (as at the time of writing) to dissociate himself from the statements attributed to him in the news report, and as such we can only conclude that these statements were indeed made by him.
"In the circumstances, and having regard to the heightened tensions of this political campaign as it enters its final and crucial weekend, we are constrained to seek your intervention to both inquire into the statements made by the Honourable Minister as well as to issue such warnings as you deem fit to persons who may be inclined to heed the call of their party’s candidates and, in so doing, commit breaches of the criminal law rendering both themselves and those inciting them liable to prosecution."
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