Category Archives: Media

A Decade of Propaganda? The BBC’s Reporting of Venezuela.

By Lee Salter
December 14th 2009 – Venezuelanalysis.com

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

President Hugo ChavezResearchers at the University of the West of England, UK, have exposed ongoing and systematic bias in the BBC’s news reporting on Venezuela. Dr Lee Salter and Dr Dave Weltman analysed ten years of BBC reports on Venezuela since the first election of Hugo Chavez to the presidency in an ongoing research project, and their findings so far show that the BBC’s reporting falls short of its legal commitment to impartiality, truth and accuracy.
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CHOGM’s Shameful Legacy

By Ras Tyehimba
December 09, 2009

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 under the theme “partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future”. Fifty-three leaders of countries, formerly direct colonies, gathered in Port of Spain, under the symbolic leadership of Queen Elizabeth II. The general responses to the Summit have been quite unsatisfactory, especially in terms of the lack of critical perspectives and understanding of the operations of the Commonwealth organisation and our own government’s participation in this. The shallow mainstream media reporting and discouragement of perspectives and activities that may “embarrass the government” has meant that people of the so-called Commonwealth, in countries across the world, have been locked into the agendas of Imperial countries. By looking at the Commonwealth of Nations from a historical perspective, there can be greater awareness of how various hierarchies and systems of control have evolved from the period of direct colonialism to the present.
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At that price we expect nothing but the best…

By Raffique Shah
November 15, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

IT’S most columnists’ nightmare, having to return to a topic he or she will have dealt with recently. It gets worse when the target is a politician, matters not what side of the divide he or she is on. They never look into their mirrors and wonder why writers focus on them. They conclude you are against them, that you support their enemies, hence your criticisms.

But, as I learned early in my many years of writing opinion pieces, you write and be damned; if you fail to address burning issues, readers conclude you are on somebody’s payroll. There are so many important matters I wish to address, to have my fellow citizens focus on. Sadly, because of the insensitivity of our politicians, I have to forego serious issues and zero my computer on Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
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Once it’s taped, it might as well be out there

November 09, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Sex and RecordingsEDITOR: A collection of sex video clips involving a local celebrity is making the rounds on the internet. I am told that she is quite embarrassed about this exposure.

Personally, I do not have a problem with adults exhibiting themselves to other adults by choice. However, if they have a problem with such performances being made public, then why do they record them in the first place? And, if they do record them, why do they not secure them properly?
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Case against PM thrown out

October 15, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com

PM Patrick ManningComplainant against PM in wrong courtroom

A PRIVATE criminal charge against Prime Minister Patrick Manning was thrown out by Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls yesterday, because the woman who filed the charge was absent from the courtroom.

Manning, who appeared through his attorney Michael Quamina, later waved to reporters as his convoy stopped for a moment outside the St Vincent Street, Port of Spain courthouse, moments after the dismissal.
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Derailing Uff

Newsday’s Editorial
Tuesday, October 6 2009

Calder HartLAST Friday’s freezing of the Commission of Inquiry into Udecott until the High Court hears Udecott’s case for judicial review on February 8, 2010 may look like a bolt out of the blue, but to seasoned observers it should come as no surprise. While on the surface there is a lot of confusion as to how lawyers for the Commission could possibly have ended up agreeing to such a draconian consent-order with Udecott’s lawyers, we dryly note that it comes on the heels of a long list of past efforts to throw the spotlight of public accountability away from Udecott.
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Louis Lee Sing pushes for compulsory national service

Use money from URP

By Corey Connelly
September 29 2009 – newsday.co.tt

Louis Lee SingExecutive chairman of Citadel Limited, Louis Lee Sing, yesterday suggested that the monies allocated to the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) be directed to the proposed National Compulsory Service initiative.

“If ever you had an opportunity of killing two birds with one stone, that is it,” he said while delivering a comprehensive presentation on the company’s proposal for compulsory national service.
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T&T’s 2009 – 2010 Budget Statement

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Calder HartThe text of the 2009-2010 Budget Statement as was presented in the House of Representatives on Monday, September 08, 2009, by the Minister of Finance the Honourable Karen Nunez-Tesheira.

Mr. Speaker, it is a distinct privilege to present to this Honourable House and to the people of Trinidad and Tobago the 2009/2010 Budget. This is the second budget of this Administration in which we continue to implement a progressive programme of development intended to improve the quality of life of our nation’s citizens.
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