By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) is rejecting outrightly the decision to allow access to only State and Government media to the repatriation of Venezuelans last Saturday.
Communications Minister Symon de Nobriga for a statement he made off camera on this matter.
In a press release on Tuesday, MATT stated that it was totally unfair to all journalists and media organisations that they were not allowed the opportunity to report on such a major issue.
MATT stated, “Journalists are witnesses on behalf of the public. We are the eyes and ears of the public where they cannot be. The free press cannot perform its constitutional role if it is to be made reliant on Government single-source information. The minister’s strategy limits the number of witnesses to one approved witness.”
From March 2020 to now, MATT added that it has observed how Government’s communication strategies, decisions and approaches have been limiting the work of journalists not employed by the State.
MATT stated, “The Ministry of Communications and the communication departments of several key ministries, including the Office of the Prime Minister, have been demonstrating a dangerous level of arbitrariness and naivete in restricting journalists’ access to information, news conferences and decision-makers.”
MATT added that in court submissions last year, the Ministry of Communications itself described its criteria for access to Ministry of Health Virtual News Conferences as “ad hoc.”
Recommendations were made by MATT in written correspondence to the communications minister in April 2020 which was yet to be acknowledged, MATT stated.
MATT stated that it has received multiple reports from news media journalists about the unresponsiveness of communications staff and difficulties accessing ministers and officials who carry key responsibilities in these pandemic times.
MATT is advising all journalists and media houses to exercise all journalistic caution when using pre-packaged material and to be diligent in advising the public when they so do.
“We urge the Government to avoid using Covid-19 restrictions and protocols to deny access to independent journalists and instead open up the currently choked information flow,” MATT stated.
In a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister, de Nobriga stated, “This Government and this Minister remain committed to a free press as enshrined in our Constitution.”
Knocking the Opposition for a “failed narrative” he said while he was open to lessons, “I must denounce this effort to sensationalise ill-advised banter to continue the failed narrative of the United National Congress and its Political Leader.”
He added, “It is instructive that this release comes just in time to distract attention from the ongoing debacle her party finds itself in at the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation with the resignation of their UNC Councillor as Chairman of the Finance Committee, having been charged with Misbehaviour in Public Office.”
In a media statement, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the policy of barring private media was tantamount to state censorship of independent media.
Also in a press release, de Nobriga said there was no Government policy that affords TTT preferential treatment over private media houses to events.
The release on Tuesday came after Kejan Haynes, of Newsat7tt, reported that TTT was given exclusive coverage of Venezuelans nationals leaving Trinidad and Tobago to return home on Saturday at the Cruise Ship Complex in Port-of-Spain.
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