MEDIA-CARIBBEAN: Spin Doctors At Work Doing Damage Control

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Wesley Gibbings

PORT OF SPAIN, May 8 1998 (IPS) - All hands are reportedly on deck as the Trinidad and Tobago Public Communications Ministry goes to work to repair damage sustained by the government following the recent expulsion of a Barbadian journalist who lived and worked here for five years.

The government has been claiming its mandatory 60 minutes of broadcast time on the two state-owned and single private television stations in the country to counter charges by the representative journalists’ organisation and a number of prominent individuals and interest groups that it has acted unfairly against the journalist.

The government has also daily used paid advertisements in the local newspapers to claim that the Julian Rogers issue was a legal one that had to do with the adherence of his employers to the law and was not a political issue which could impact on Trinidad and Tobago’s relations with its Caribbean Community (Caricom) neighbours.

These efforts notwithstanding, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, who is widely viewed as being responsible for Rogers’ removal, is now refusing to endorse the Declaration of Chapultepec issued by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) and only last week signed by Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson.

The Declaration which is named after a castle in Mexico, the site of the Hemispheric Conference on Free Speech held in 1994 at which it was written and adopted, outlines 10 principles for a free press in the western hemisphere.

Panday told one reporter this week he would not sign the Declaration if it did not make explicit reference to action against journalists responsible for “lies, half-truths and innuendoes.”

Should such a report be true, some damage control already manoeuvred by Ministry of Information spin-doctors can quickly unravel.

The Media Association (MATT) was Thursday meeting to consider the state of play following weeks of unsuccessful lobbying to prevent Rogers’ expulsion. So far, it has harshly criticised the Panday administration for what it deems to be “a contravention of the spirit of regional integration”.

In a statement issued for World Press Freedom Day observances on the weekend, MATT said it was disturbed at recent developments which were contributing to oppressive conditions for the press.

“To an increasing degree, we are recognising that the Trinidad and Tobago media environment has not escaped some of the more intractable difficulties associated with the creation of an environment conducive to the conduct of the free press,” MATT said.

“While we have, so far, escaped the worst effects of physical violence, harassment, incarceration and even death, we have experienced a measure of resistance to the notion of a free press that is disturbing and, we believe, dangerous,” it added.

It was MATT that initially raised the spectre of the regional consequences of Rogers’ expulsion pointing to an agreement by Caricom governments that Caribbean media workers should enjoy preferential treatment as far as work and residency requirements go.

MATT has been joined by the Caribbean Association of Media Workers (CAMWORK) in its criticism of the move.

In a sharp rebuke against his Caricom colleague, Barbados’ Prime Minister Owen Arthur has criticised Panday for the stance taken on the Rogers issue.

In what threatened to degenerate into a war of words, Arthur denied an earlier claim by Panday that the Barbados Prime Minister never sought to raise the matter when they met for the Second Summit of the Americas in Chile last month.

Arthur’s anger was matched by Panday’s rebuttal that the matter was only casually raised in Santiago. Arthur has since responded through Trinidadian politician Nizam Mohammed (leader of the National Alliance for Reconstruction political party) that Panday’s explanation of what happened was both “disrespectful” and “insulting”.

Barbados’ Attorney General David Simmons said in Port of Spain this week that if the matter is not resolved, it is certain to reach the agenda of the forthcoming Caricom Summit in St. Lucia.

At a brief meeting between Simmons and Trinidad and Tobago National Security Minister Joseph Theodore, Simmons suggested that the Minister could, by administrative dictate, reverse its current position on the admission of Caribbean journalists.

The issue may well be raised at a proposed meeting between Panday and Arthur. No date has been set for the encounter, but Panday is reportedly initiating the discussion.

Simmons has revealed that there was also considerable concern in other Caricom territories about the matter. “They can’t understand it,” he said.

The IAPA is meanwhile joining the lobby to reverse the Rogers decision. The hemispheric body has written Panday calling on him to afford “full guarantees” to non-Trinidadian journalists.

“This will ensure the preservation of freedom of expression in Trinidad and Tobago,” the letter says.

IAPA President, Oliver Clarke, says Panday should set the example for the rest of Caricom and sign the Chapultepac Declaration. But Panday’s fighting words on the issue may not see Clarke’s call heeded.

Addressing parliament last week, Panday said any national who provided a job to a non-Trinidadian was a “traitor”. This remark has not found favour with former diplomat Reginald Dumas who says the Panday administration is sending the wrong message to the international community.

“Instead of descending into a xenophobia as pathetic as it is dated, should they (government) not reflect on the message that is being sent and dealt with?” he asks.

For the moment, the government’s strategy has barely balanced the work of its spin-doctors and the Prime Minister’s continuing offensive.

Rogers, a radio and television broadcaster, returned to Barbados last week after a work permit extension was denied him. He was employed at Caribbean Communications Network (CCN), a media conglomerate with interests throughout the Caribbean.

Last year, CCN chairman, Kenneth Gordon initiated legal action against Panday for describing him as a “pseudo-racist”. The Prime Minister has engaged in non-stop battle with the media here since his election in 1995.