TVJ rejects Montague's criticisms

Television Jamaica has rejected criticisms from former Minister of National Security Robert Montague over a story it published on Thursday.

Below is the full statement issued by TVJ this afternoon:

Television Jamaica notes the statement made by former National Security Minister Robert Montague on Friday, chiding or news centre for irresponsible journalism.

We reject that assertion for the following reasons:

At his news conference on Friday, the minister did not identify any inaccuracy in our report;

TVJ confirms that we had written to him in December 2017 asking questions about the matter. We never received a reply. However an individual claiming to have knowledge of our letter to the minister, but saying he was not representing him, visited our station, met with three journalists and ask that for National Security concerns we not report on the matter at that time.

We were never told that the user's firearm license we were asking about was granted and then revoked by the previous minister of National Security under the previous government. We were also not told that criminal charges against the man were dismissed by the courts. Those would have been material and would have been reported.

We followed up with him on different occasions and the man in question advised us that the situation had not changed.

As is known in April there was a cabinet reshuffle and a Dr. Horace Chang was appointed the new Minister of National Security. After his appointment in late March 2018, we requested the same information of Dr. Chang that we did of the previous Minister. The response from Dr. Chang was the accurate information shared in our news report on a Thursday.

It has now been reported that the person in question left the country eight months ago, that is eight months before we reported anything on this matter. We accept that Minister Montague has given additional information and the context in which he says he operated. However none of that changed the facts reported in the TVJ story. Against this background, we contend that our accurate report neither breached any journalistic tenet nor creates any national security concern.

On Friday evening, current National Security Minister, Dr. Chang discussed the matter with the RJR/TVJ News Centre and company management and we have agreed to meet with him and the former minister to facilitate a discussion of the matter and any concern that may linger.

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