Updated 4:13PM

I am not reporting what has already been reported about the PNM but I am drawing to the attention of readers that the media problem is not simply a PNM phenomena. The UNC has been the worst offender of media censorship. The media houses themselves are complicit in this whole censorship affair. (I will develop this in another article.) All the political parties are guilty of this, but when known UNC supports takes issue with PNM attempts to censure the news then I must remind them to examine their history.

Where were many people during the UNC tenure when they turned the state media into their campaign machine?

They filled the media with UNC stooges and closed the door to any opposing views.

Do you remember the nickname HA TV (Hansley Ajodha TV) aptly nicknamed as UNC/Hansley made no attempt to hide the fact that they were censuring the news and only allowing UNC supporters to get in on call-in programs? They asked callers many questions trying to decipher their political leaning before they were allowed to comment on our state owned TV.

Where was Burnet, all this time? He was right there while the UNC was manipulating the news and he has much more to say on this affair.

People who remained silent while UNC/Basdeo Panday trampled on the media and are now seeking to gain political mileage from this affair are hypocrites.

PNM is dealing with the entire aspect of our state media quite badly and they should be taken to task but we should also remember the many racist hypocrites, who supported the most extreme media censorship under Basdeo Panday.

AHH

Decline of TTT

By Raffique Shah, October 8, 2000

AS A journalist, and more than that, as a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, I waver between bouts of seething anger and coming close to tears when I watch how TTT, the State-owned television station, is being run to the ground through political interference. In fact, the entire NBN network, which includes the second oldest radio station in the country (Radio 610), has been so emasculated over the past five years, I am not surprised that many of the newer radio stations that are woeful when it comes to quality announcers are more popular than NBN. MORE