MSJ condemns CoP's 'unwarranted' attack on media

THE Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) has condemned what it sees as the "unwarranted" attack on the media by police commissioner Gary Griffith.

Leader of the MSJ David Abdulah said he viewed the naming of senior media members by Griffith and “snide remarks about them” as inappropriate and even threatening.

He said calling out the names of journalist could make them subject to physical or verbal abuse, as has happened in the US when President Donald Trump dubbed certain news organisations and journalists purveyors of “fake news.”

He also referred to the threat to lay sedition charges against general secretary of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Satnarayan Maharaj for statements made on Radio Jaagriti, and called for an amendment to the Sedition Act.

Abdulah said while Maharaj’s comments were also inappropriate and should never have been made, the law is antiquated and backward and must be amended.

Speaking from the MSJ’s St Joseph, San Fernando headquarters, Abdulah said, “The TTPS is a major arm of the state of TT. It is not the private domain of any individual, be he constable or commissioner.

“Therefore, it means when there is a conflict between the TTPS and the media, it therefore represents fundamentally, a conflict between the State and the media.”

He said the freedom of the media, which is enshrined in the Constitution, gives the media a strong platform from which to operate and a right to act as “a balance wheel” by investigating and reporting the facts to ensure there is no abuse by the State, private companies or even individuals.

Abdulah said the MSJ would fiercely defend the human rights of individuals, organisations and others against any abuse and would not be intimidated.

He revealed that shortly after the party’s issued invitations to the news conference to speak about the CoP’s attack on the media, he got a call from a police officer asking for police ro sit in on his news conference. Abdulah said he politely but firmly refused the request.

“We will certainly not be intimidated, although I am not suggesting the call was to intimidate us. But it is an indication of the slippery slope down which we have to travel if we allow the right of our freedom of expression to be stymied in any way.”

While he defended freedom of expression, Abdulah cautioned that in the lead-up to the local and general elections, statements may be made on mainstream or social media to cause division.

“I am talking about statements that can lead to incitement or violence or racial conflict or other acts of abuse against people, whether homophobic statements, other kinds of gender statements, statements against children. Such statements ought to be banned or outlawed or made a crime.

“We must ensure freedom of expression does not cross that line and trespass into a situation where such statements can act as incitement to violence or to cause a certain type of divisiveness in society.”

He called on people not to allow themselves to be divided “by race and by religion, by political parties, politicians, persons who have direct political interest in keeping the races divided and keeping the politics as Indian versus African and UNC versus PNM.

“Such politics has resulted in TT’s development being frustrated and stymied and our people left in poverty. This type of politics must be thrown in the dustbin of history.”

He also said the MSJ was totally opposed to Griffith’s decision to enforce the law when it comes to people protesting on the streets.

In a country when power resides in the hands of a few, he said, peaceful protest is the only means the “disempowered” have to seek redress for their problems, even though it may inconvenience others.