Was Trinidad and Tobago TV Ever Free or Fair and Balanced?

In the Bill and debate of this legislation in the run-up to being enacted, former Minister Ralph Maraj did indicate that it was his intention and the intention of the UNC government, for the Broadcasting Code to be created no longer than one year following the ascension of the Telecommunication Act. Of course, as a result of the premature general election that took place later that very year, the incoming PNM government delayed work on this until 2005, and even though a draft was finalized in 2008, it was never promulgated, Meaning that, to date, we still do not have a code in effect, despite the fact that the Telecommunications Act and the issuance of a Broadcaster’s License has been premised upon its existence for the past twenty-three years.

Now, during the debate of this Bill in the Senate, the inclusion of the clause for a Broadcasting Code was heavily criticized by then Independent Senator Martin Daly who, interestingly enough, in his argument said:

I think the irony of thinking a Broadcasting Code might prevent TTT from being free is something that Mr. Daly might want to revisit following the incident involving the speech of the Leader of the Opposition at the most recent edition of the Divali Nagar. But another Independent Senator, Prof. Ramesh Deosaran saw the matter differently and suggested this in the same debate:

This is an interesting position to take in 2001, because in the following years, again under the succeeding PNM government, TTT would be reimagined as a more privatized institution, despite remaining 100% state-owned, when it was rebranded as the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG). So the purpose of this change was to make the company more profitable by following a more corporate business model, rather than the state-run approach which had guided the company since its inception. However, in 2017 when the company reverted to the TTT name, in response to a letter written by Dr. Indera Sagewan and published in the local newspapers, former Minister Maxie Cuffie clarified that:

And as a slight tangent, it is interesting that the same PNM that made this decision in 2017 for TTT to become less profit-driven is the same government that would close down Petrotrin the following year with the exact opposite reasoning and intention.

Whether you believe that the incident which saw the presentation of the Leader of the Opposition being disrupted during the live broadcast of the event on TTT was intentional or not will remain a completely subjective opinion for the simple reason that without the benefit of the legislatively mandated Broadcasting Code, there currently exists no means by which an investigation can be made and punishment could be meted out if, in fact, this was a deliberate attempt at political censorship.

That said, the fact that the PNM has resisted the legislative mandate to implement a Broadcasting Code for over two decades indicates their views on the matter, and being that this is a state-run channel that is implicated in this scandal, the hesitance of the government to launch a proper inquiry into the matter appears suspicious at best. Because, while one would think that a responsible government might wish to clarify that it has no involvement in this matter whatsoever, through both its actions and inaction, it appears that the PNM relishes basking in the controversy, whether they actually had a hand in it or not.

Best regards,