(Trinidad Guardian) As the police continue investigations into the alleged breach at the Integrity Commission the International Press Institute (IPI) plans to visit T&T as part of its press freedom mission. The Vienna-based organisation, which made the unprecedented decision to bring together more than 350 leading journalists from more than 70 countries to T&T in June for its annual conference because of the country’s history of press freedom, has considered relocating the gathering after the raids at Newsday’s offices.
It is the first time the 62-year-old organisation will meet in the Caribbean. Executive director of IPI Alison Bethel McKenzie said the group had consider relocating its conference but instead it will add T&T to the list of Caribbean nations it plans to visit ahead of the June gathering as part of its press freedom missions. Other nations include Barbados and Guyana.
The missions, which include publishers and editors from around the world, are designed to “pressure governments into better press freedom practices,” McKenzie said. Meanwhile, in a similar issue Reporters Without Borders (RSF) intervened in Haiti last year after three journalists at a state-owned TV station said they were fired because of their criticism of then President-elect Michel Martelly.
In a public rebuke of the action, the group called on Martelly to take a clear position on protecting press freedoms and editorial independence during his five-year term in office. Since then, reporters in Haiti have continued to complain, accusing the president of using abusive and even sometimes threatening language with them. In December, a local radio station reported that a citizen holding a sign urging the press “to leave the president alone” was rewarded by Martelly with a new motorcycle at a public rally.
Benoit Hervieu of RSF Americas desk, said the group has received several reports of Martelly using “abusive or threatening language” against some journalists. “Of course, we remain vigilant but these incidents have fortunately not had too many consequences for the moment from our different sources,” he said.
