T&T media shocked by police commissioner's response to death threat

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 23, CMC – The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) Saturday said it was “shocked and disappointed’ at statements made by the Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams that the threats against a senior investigative journalist may be as a result of his own wrongdoing.



“The suggestion by the Acting Commissioner of Police that inaccurate reporting by CCN’s Senior Investigative Journalist Mark Bassant may have caused a threat to be made on his life is the most outrageous statement to be made by the head of law enforcement in the country.



“MATT is shocked and disappointed that Mr. Stephen Williams would seek to legitimize the threat made on the life of a journalist on account of alleged inaccurate reporting. Surely Mr. Williams must be aware that there are avenues available to individuals to find redress if they feel they are injured by false reporting,” MATT said in a statement.



Williams, speaking on a radio programme here on Friday, said the death threats Bassant may have been as a result of the journalist’s own wrongdoing.



“Firstly I would like to confirm that a report was made by Mr. Mark Bassant to the head of the Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit based on what he alleges is a threat against his life. That matter is being investigated right now.”



But he told radio listeners that “there were a lot of statements and utterances made by Mr. Bassant which have been very irresponsible on his part on things which are incorrect, which I know as a fact are incorrect which I can just put in the public domain, based on the office I hold and the access to information I have. And some of that, I believe, may have triggered the issue of a threat being made against Mr. Mark Bassant.”



But Williams made it clear that the Trinidad and Tobago P:olice Service (TTPS) has a responsibility to protect every citizen of this country.



“Any threat against any citizen of this land is a serious matter and we (the TTPS) take it seriously and pursue it vigorously, and I can tell you the unit is treating it with utmost level of responsibility,” Williams said.



Bassant has been forced to flee the country after receiving the death threats, head of news at the television station, Dominic Kalipersad confirmed.



Kalipersad told television viewers on Wednesday night that Bassant had received the threats while working on sensitive investigative material and that both National Security Minister Gary Griffith and Williams had been made aware of the hit on the journalist.



The Trinidad Express newspaper, a sister company of the television station, reported that “key underworld criminals” had made the death threat against Bassant.



Bassant told the newspaper that on May 7, “I got a call from a very reliable underworld source that certain criminal elements wanted to harm me because of stories I wrote recently that were showing them up.



“I made a report on it. The next day I was liaising with certain police officers involved in a specific investigation, only to later learn from other trusted sources that these same officers who I had spoken to earlier were leaking information about me and what I knew to the said individuals who orga­nised for my demise.”



The regional media group, the Association of Caribbean media Workers (ACM), has expressed concerned over the safety of the journalists and the Canadian government said it viewed with “great concern” reports of a death threat made against Bassant.



The Canadian High Commission in a statement said the “government of Canada view with great concern stories in the media of Trinidad and Tobago about death threats against a local investigative journalist.

“An open, democratic, transparent and accountable society is one where all citizens and media can express themselves freely, no matter their position on public issues“.



In its statement, MATT said that it was making it clear that it “does not condone inaccurate reporting and journalists and the managers of newsrooms have a responsibility to ensure that the stories that are placed in the public domain represent truth and are balanced and fair.



“However Mr. Williams’ statement cannot escape condemnation for its irresponsibility. MATT hopes that the Acting Commissioner of Police was perhaps inarticulate in his characterisation of the threat because if his words are a true reflection of his position on this matter then we are all in deep trouble.”



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