Trinidad Guardian Online
KYLE JEREMIAH
Prime Minister Patrick Manning says he has had it with the media.
Further, Manning said, “If the spirit moves me,” he will not hesitate to visit media houses to complain if he disapproves of the content they produce.
“I have taken a personal decision and that decision is that if ever I am aggrieved by anything the media does in the future, I am going to the courts,” he said, during the post-Cabinet news conference yesterday.
He was expressing his disappointment with the media in the aftermath of reports that he had stormed into the offices of 94.1FM to complain about two radio announcers who criticised him during a broadcast.
Several individuals and groups have expressed concerns over Manning’s visit to the station and questioned whether it was an attempt to suppress press freedom.
But Manning maintained that it was his right as a citizen to visit anywhere he wanted.
“First of all, I didn’t suspend anybody from a radio station...I have no such authority,” he said.
“If individuals were suspended from a radio station, it was purely internal and a management issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the Prime Minister.
“The second issue, therefore, is whether it is proper for the PM to visit a radio station or not.
“If it is proper for a citizen of T&T to visit a radio station, then it cannot be improper for the PM as a citizen of T&T to do the same—unless of course, there are rights available to every citizen in T&T except the PM of the country. That, of course, cannot be so.”
Asked whether he would acknowledge that his influence as Prime Minister resulted in the suspension of the two announcers, Manning said: “What influence? I told those in authority at the radio station what had happened and I made it clear. I was making no complaint...I expected no redress because expecting redress from the media is asking too much. I told them that.”
Saying that he never listened to the station and “never will,” Manning said he declined offers from the station to get back to him after a thorough investigation.
“Get back to me for what? It has nothing to do with me. Whatever you do, you do. You run the radio station, I run the country—together with my Cabinet colleagues,” he said.
Manning said that in his 38 years in public life, he had seen “attacks” on individuals, particularly politicians.
“The traditional and conventional wisdom in the PNM is if we raise these matters publicly, yes we may have a point, but eventually we can pay a political price for raising it,” he said.
He lamented that of the 34 radio stations, seven television stations and three daily newspapers, he was unable to identify any media house that pursued a pro-government agenda.
“What is worse is that too many of the commentators either in the newspapers or on the radio do not respect our institutions,” Manning said.
“It is a question of being disrespectful to institutions and authority and pursuing a course of action that can cause the image of these institutions and individuals to be tarnished in the minds of those in whose interest they are set up to serve. And therefore they can become completely ineffective.”
Manning also revealed that he was taking the matter of the weekly newspaper report about him “storming” into the radio station to the courts.
On the issue of heavy security accompanying him to the radio station, Manning said there was “nothing unusual” about that because it was his normal security detail.
He denied claims that he stormed out of the barber salon, where he was at the time when the radio programme aired, to go directly to the station to complain.
He said he eventually went to the station “on his way home” after visiting a friend in the hospital and another in Pointe-a-Pierre.
Manning said a number of options were available to him in future, including going to the Telecommunications Authority of T&T (TATT).
TATT, however, revealed on Tuesday that even if Manning had lodged a complaint with them, they could not do anything because of the absence of a broadcast code.
