www.newsday.co.tt

United States Ambassador Dr Roy Austin's protest to the Media Complaints Council (MCC) that media houses did not publish in its entirety a speech he had made, although he had specifically requested that this be done, affects to ignore guarantees of Freedom of the Press contained both in this country's Constitution and the First Amendment to the US Constitution, as well as how newspapers operate. Was Ambassador Austin's official complaint to the MCC designed to bring pressure on the media with respect to this specific case?

Is it that the American Ambassador mistakenly equates the importance of whatever he may say, and with it assumes the right that it should be published, with the position in world affairs of the country he represents? If this is so, we should like to disabuse his mind. In Trinidad and Tobago, not unlike that of the United States, a newspaper decides on the basis of public interest and space whether it will publish in full or in part statements and/or speeches made by public and other officials, or by private individuals. The decision to publish or not to publish is the sole responsibility of the newspaper's Editor.

Any attempt to challenge this right or to have it abrogated is a challenge not only to the newspaper concerned, but the institution itself of Press Freedom. Freedom of the Press is not a hackneyed phrase, a cliche, but rather an institution jealously guarded by the media, by the Constitution and by the media's readership in most countries where there is a freely elected government of the people, by the people and for the people. Ambassador Austin is the official representative of the Government of the United States of America in Trinidad and Tobago. Because of this it is to be assumed that whatever public stance he adopts with respect to national issues, and Press Freedom is a national issue, will be taken as representing the policy position of the US Government, or to be specific the George Bush Administration.

But was Ambassador Austin's complaint to the MCC that media houses had refused to accede to his request that his speech be published in its entirety representative of a US policy position? If it is so there may be cause for concern. So important is the issue of Freedom of the Press in Trinidad and Tobago that it forms one of the fundamental human rights and freedoms in the Constitution — Chapter 1, Part 1, Section 4 (k). Ambassador Austin should read it.