Freedom of the Press

“Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means of [achieving] a free society.” Felix Frankfurter; American Jurist 1882 – 1965.

Freedom of the press is the guarantee by a government of free public press for its citizens and their associations, extended to members of news organizations and their published reporting. It also extends to news gathering, and processes involved in obtaining information for public distribution. The raid on the TNT Newscenter on Thursday 9th March 2006 was a violation of that guarantee.

In seizing copies of the Girls of Sunday Punch, it is my estimation that this was a guise or a ruse, a masked attempt at intimidation by the police, and by extension, the government. TNT Newscenter has been producing the Girls of Sunday Punch for a number of years. Why now is it offensive? Whom did it offend?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights indicates: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”

Censorship only limits perspective. The freedom to choose is crucial to any democratic society. If we are to follow the state’s case with respect to pornography in this case, I wish to refer to conclusions derived in an article published by Patricia Petersen in the Courier Mail [Brisbane, Australia] on 14th August, 2004. It concluded that soft core pornography was a way for couples to spice up their sex lives and that there was no corroborating evidence to suggest that widespread distribution and use of pornography increases the number of sex crimes. [Please note that we do not produce porn – what we have is young ladies consenting to give their pictures for publication].

This article, however, is not about pornography. It is about freedom of the press, about discrimination. If the TNT Newscenter is to be charged with display of “offensive” material, then the cable company should be charged as well, along with a number of other establishments. It is also peculiar that certain brothels are raided and others are not. Why the hypocrisy? In any event, we live in a free country, and people should be allowed to choose what they want to read, see or hear. If you don’t like, leave it be, but don’t impose your values on others. I wonder who in this administration got their panties in a knot to force the police to raid the TNT Newscenter.

Despite recent events, we will continue to tell the story as it is, in words and in pictures. This institution shall not be intimidated. Our rich journalistic history gives us ammunition to take on all forces, no matter how they are disguised.

The raid on the TNT Newscenter was unjust, and totally uncalled for. According to Albert Camus 1913 – 1960 [French Novelist and Essayist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957] “A free press can of course be good or bad, but most certainly, without freedom, it will never be anything but bad… Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.”

We at the TNT Mirror strive to provide you, our readers, with all the information. We provide you with the background, the information that some may not want you to know about and we will continue so to do. A few must not determine the choices of the majority. You should be allowed to make up your own mind.

“The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government.” Thomas Jefferson 1762 – 1826 [3rd American President]. If we are not careful, we, as a society, will abdicate all our rights to a despotic government that is focused on maintaining power. As the saying goes “Give an inch and they will take a yard!” The authorities must understand from now that this type of activity will not be tolerated.

There has been many an example of governments using the press to subdue criticism, to intimidate the media into conforming to their wishes. On Thursday March 6, 2006, masked police carrying AK-47 assault riffles raided the television station and newspaper [The Standard] owned by Kenya’s second largest media group and briefly detained four journalists. A police spokesman said in a statement a few hours after the raids that the authorities conducted the sweep to collect evidence about a plot that would threaten national security.

These raids took place in the context of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his government facing several corruption allegations, with two Ministers already resigning. This was clearly an attempt to silence the media as part of damage control. We await further developments from this troubled nation.

On February 26, 2006, the Philippine police raided the Daily Tribune in Manila. This was an attempt to damage the financial stability of the paper by putting doubt in the minds of advertisers. The paper is a regular critic of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that has been accused of election fraud and corruption.

On August 6, 2005, Sudanese security forces conducted 4 a.m. raids on two newspapers, the Al Watan and the Al Wan. No explanation was given, but it was one month after Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir declared in front of the United Nations Secretary General and several African Presidents that he would work towards greater press freedom within his country.

The connection is obvious. We must not allow these acts of aggression against the media to establish a foothold here in Trinidad and Tobago. The Panday Administration came under heavy criticism by the media for its perceived hostile manner, but press freedom is in greater danger now than it ever was under that government. There have been subtle attacks, first, with agents being implanted in the various news rooms and now and outright attack on the TNT Newscenter.

We will never surrender our mission. We will continue to bring you, the citizens, all the news and entertainment that can be provided in an objective, professional manner. The notion of the press as the fourth branch of government is sometimes used to compare the press [or media] with Montesquieu’s three branches of government, namely an addition to the legislative, the executive and the judicial branches of government. Edmund Burke said “Three Estates in Parliament; but in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important for than them all.”

The TNT Newscenter is prepared to carry out the duties of the Fourth Estate. We remain ever vigilant when it comes to protecting the rights and privileges earned by the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Patrick Chokolingo and Keith Shepard would have had it no other way.