The Guyana Press Association (GPA) on Friday expressed “deep regret and disbelief” at reports that the police in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday invaded the Newsday newsroom, apparently to pressure the media outlet to reveal the source of a story it recently published.
“We wish to join with others of like mind around the region and world to wholeheartedly condemn such callous and unwarranted action by the police, coming just weeks after a similar invasion of the offices of TV-6 by the police,” the GPA said in a press release.
The police had stormed the TV6 offices last December. According to news reports out of Port of Spain, policemen attached to the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (ACIB) in Trinidad and Tobago executed a warrant and searched the desk and computer of journalist Andre Bagoo, allegedly with respect to an article he wrote on December 20, 2011 about a row between Integrity chairman Ken Gordon and deputy chairman Gladys Gafoor.
The GPA asserted that “Media houses must be free to operate in an atmosphere free from fear and intimidation from state departments like that of the police.”
Consequently, the GPA is calling on the administration of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to launch a full and comprehensive investigation into the latest incident as well as the previous one at TV-6.
“What is more disheartening and even frightening is that the police also found it fit to invade the private home of the journalist who wrote the story and to cart off computers and other personal property. This action must not be, neither should it set a precedent in the Commonwealth Caribbean and wider community.”
The GPA also contended that authorities “must act now to completely discourage this practice before it raises its ugly head again.”
Meanwhile, the GPA declared that it was standing by the journalist in this matter and the newspaper’s “refusal to disclose sources of professional work to anyone under any circumstances as we all consider it as a fundamental right of our profession to protect our sources.”
