(Trinidad Guardian) The resignations by senior media personnel at the Guardian newspaper was not because of political pressure, Guardian Media Ltd (GML) managing director Gabriel Faria said in an interview yesterday.
Speaking to GML television station CNC3, Faria was also asked if he had tendered his resignation. He said he was still managing director.
Faria said he had “no idea” about any political pressure, and had received no call from any Government official because of recent Guardian stories, like the use of a Land Rover vehicle by Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal.
Land Rover is distributed in Trinidad and Tobago by ANSA Automotive, a subsidiary of the ANSA McAL Group which also owns GML.
Earlier yesterday, reports indicated that several members of the Guardian’s senior editorial staff had tendered their resignations.
Faria said that he had two resignations out of a pool of about 100 journalists.
Asked about the status of Guardian editor-in-chief Judy Raymond, Faria said: “Judy is editor-in-chief. Nothing has changed. She has agreed in a discussion with me earlier this week to actually go off-line to work on the development of a more robust editorial policy that will set the tone for the way we do our reporting to ensure again we provide the highest quality that is unbiased, accurate and fair.”
When questioned about why two staff members quit he said he had no details, but there were concerns because (the Guardian was) trying to improve the standards of journalism, “which meant people had to do more work and more background checks to give a full perspective of all the stories”.
“The only thing I can assume is people feel that is unreasonable. I don’t know. Everybody is uncomfortable with change but in an environment like ours change is inevitable,” he said.
He said he had always been supportive of the journalistic team.
“I have never, and no management person has ever told reporters what to write, what not to write and what stories to pursue. We have no plans to do that. We do want to make sure we provide a complete story for our readers,” he said, responding to claims of infringement on press freedom by the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
Guardian senior editor Suzanne Sheppard is MATT’s president and Raymond is vice-president.
