Police raid wrong on so many fronts

I cannot summon a word strong enough to condemn the actions of the police at Express House last Thursday. Express journalist Alexander Bruzual reported the incident in which police officers led by Supt Wendell Lucas, “swooped down on Express House in Port of Spain and searched the office of the Editor-in-Chief (Omatie Lyder) for information related to an investigative story by journalist Denyse Renne."

The Sunday Express story in question was 'Cop in $2m cheque probe', which Bruzual reported, “revealed that three banks had flagged $2 million in suspicious money deposited into several bank accounts belonging to acting police commissioner Irwin Hackshaw.”

That police raid is disturbing and shameful, and it violates every democratic principle regarding a free press. It is totally unacceptable and embarrassing for the police. Furthermore, it is a battle police can never win. They have shot themselves in the foot. Don't police know that journalists will never reveal a source?

As Lyder would later state, “Journalists are prepared to go to prison to protect their sources. This comes with our territory. We know it, and we honour it. Journalism depends on that ethical principle.”

Furthermore, don’t the police understand their motto, “to protect and serve” means protecting our rights as a democracy and serving us – the people? Can’t the police understand how they are the master craftsmen of the scorn that surrounds them?

In many nooks and crannies in our society, police are perceived as being heavy-handed and petty. If this brazen, misguided search could happen at Express House just think of the implications for the poor and disenfranchised who don’t have the visibility or resources a newspaper has, to expose such intimidation and injustice.

We are in a sorry state – not to mention a messed up one – if and when police follow orders blindly. Look to history to see how well that turned out for certain European states. To make matters worse, police reportedly tried to prevent an Express photographer and TV6 cameraman from filming the search. Policing demands transparency.

The Media Association (MATT) gave a swift and clear response saying, “Journalists in receipt of information about wrongdoing cannot be intimidated by the police to reveal their sources.” The organisation pointed out the “urgency of adequate whistleblower legislation.”

Without such legislation, journalists are in danger of being harassed for information they cannot disclose. There is no country that has tried to intimidate journalists and got away scot free. At the very least, those countries lost credibility internationally. In first-world countries, courts found slapping contempt charges on journalists who refused to disclose their sources to be useless.

That raid did immeasurable damage to the police’s image. If it was meant to intimidate, I guarantee that it failed miserably because all reporters are prepared for such challenges and disruptions.

Instead of concentrating on pressing matters, Government will be forced to pour time and effort in damage control or else act like ostriches and bury their heads in the sand, a solution which has never worked. I am sorry for the good police we have who try to do their jobs fairly and conscientiously. Their jobs are made difficult by colleagues who fall short.

Overall, it’s time for police to get their act together and know their place in a democratic society. I am sorry Ms Lyder and her reporters had to endure such unwarranted treatment. I have had the privilege of working with Lyder and know the high standards she possesses as a journalist.