Rowley slams media over reports on AG, government officials

The Prime Minister attacked the media on Saturday, including Sunday Newsday journalist Darren Bahaw, when he was asked a question on the Attorney General, as well as an attempt by a TV6 reporter to clarify claims made on social media about a government official.

It triggered Dr Rowley’s criticism of mainstream media, its reporting and its use of social media, during a media conference at the VIP Lounge of the Piarco International Airport on Saturday, ahead of his departure to Suriname for a Caricom summit.

Bahaw tried to question Dr Rowley on whether he did due diligence on Reginald Armour, SC, before Armour was appointed as AG, saying he had previously sent the question via WhatsApp while the Prime Minister was in the US.

When Bahaw referenced the message Rowley said, “Don’t go any further. I advise you, don’t go any further. You know why? Let me tell you why, because I think your colleagues need to know. You are the gentleman who stood outside the Hall of Justice for hours waiting for me to come out of the court when I sued the Integrity Commission. And you waited and took a picture with the bars in front at Carnival time, and had me coming out with the bars in front of me and the headline then was, ‘Rowley Appears in Court.’

“Remember that? I who sued the Integrity Commission, I appeared in court. When somebody ‘appears in court,’ you know what that means? It means that they were taken to court for some criminal matter. That, go and check the archives in the Express and you would find that there. And that was your doing. And you coming to ask me now about the what? I am not going to answer you!”

Rowley then refused to take any more questions from Bahaw even as Bahaw told the PM he had no personal grudge against him. The PM interjected that he was “just pointing out the role the media is playing when there is malice.”

Rowley was referring to an article published in the Express when Bahaw was a journalist with that paper over a decade ago.

In 2007, Rowley applied for judicial review of the decision of the Integrity Commission to make, conclude, or publish a report resulting from the “Landate Project” investigation which began in 2004. The investigation focused on the alleged siphoning of materials from the Scarborough Hospital site to a development project at Mason Hall, Tobago, where his wife, Sharon Rowley, was the landowner and developer.

Rowley said the Integrity Commission acted in bad faith and did not afford him the opportunity to be heard on allegations made against him and, in 2009, he was awarded damages.

Bahaw said the Express digital archives showed the story he wrote was headlined: Rowley makes first court showing in Landate matter – and was published on February 13, 2007. He could not recall who took the picture.

At Saturday’s press conference, Bahaw persisted in asking his question about Armour and, according to Bahaw, deputy press secretary Abby Brathwaite took the microphone away from him and told him he could not ask any more questions on the issue.

However, he continued without the mic and the PM eventually answered that he was not involved in the matter and would let the courts deal with it.

Bahaw told Rowley he sent the WhatsApp message on June 10, asking questions about the Piarco Airport corruption case in Florida, while Rowley was at the ninth Summit of the Americas, in Los Angeles.

The questions in the WhatsApp message included:

* Did the Attorney General Reginald Armour declare his potential conflict before he accepted the job as AG on March 16, 2022?

* In keeping with due diligence checks on potential nominees to join the Cabinet, particularly for attorneys who may be involved in numerous matters as defence counsel, did Mr Armour’s representation of people accused of fraud in the Piarco matter surface and was there a commitment for him to recuse himself in any associated matter?

* In light of the ruling by a US judge which disqualified both the US law firm, Sequor Law, and the Attorney General from participating further in the case, and the estimated in excess of TT$20 million now lost in legal fees paid to that firm, do you think the outcome of the case is in jeopardy as well as the public’s trust and confidence in the government which requires your considered attention?

* Do you think Mr Armour’s representation of having a minimal role in the Piarco case, which conflicts with the public record, is sufficient for you to consider his removal from office?

“I was only doing my job as a journalist in the public’s interest. I am taken aback by the Prime Minister’s outburst, which I believe was unwarranted,” Bahaw said.

When questioned about the 2007 headline Rowley spoke of, Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder told Sunday Newsday she had not checked the files to see who wrote the article, took the picture or even the year the incident occurred. She said she was not certain who wrote the article or the headline, who edited the paper, who took or chose the photo, or who designed the page.

“In any event, we don’t sit down and decide to do something deliberately misleading or malicious. It would not have been deliberate in the context of which the Prime Minister is accusing Darren,” said Lyder.

The incident was the climax of Rowley’s statements after TV6 reporter Urvashi Roopnarine asked about a social media post claiming the foreign account of a senior government official was under scrutiny by the US.

In response, Rowley said, “I’m a great fan of the media, as you know, but when the media is taking its timing from social media foolishness, I really don’t want to get involved in that.”

He said both his and media personnel’s time was too valuable to consider the statements of someone with no credibility who had no evidence. He lamented that MPs, people who were supposed to be guiding the country, also get involved as if their referencing it would make the claims true.

He added that he was amazed by the “level of nastiness” in the national community as people commented on that and similar posts, hoping that negative reports were true of him and his government officials.

“Social media is being used to perpetuate some of the worst of our people. I don’t know that everybody’s doing it but in TT it’s par for the course. Absolute rubbish! And it seems that the more ridiculous the rubbish, the easier it is to get into the narrative of TT.”