By Ucill Cambridge, Express

THE Advertising Agencies Association of Trinidad and Tobago is threatening to have clients stop advertising with any radio station which shows outright political or racial bias.

AAATT president Ian Collier said the association would lobby its clients to pull their ads from stations who were found to be guilty of bias.

Collier, upon questioning, said if the 102FM Gladiator morning programme continued in its present tone, that station might be the first to be affected.

Head of news at 102, Andy Johnson, said in response: "Let them go ahead."

A circular, signed by Collier, but which is a joint effort by the AAATT, the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) and the Media Sector Committee of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber, "hereby advises that members of the AAATT will strongly encourage their clients to withdraw advertising support from any medium in Trinidad and Tobago whose representatives on the airwaves are found to be blatantly displaying, encouraging, inciting and/or promoting political bias and disharmony".

The AAATT said this was in keeping with its objective of raising the bar on advertising standards, and its industry-wide commitment to advertising and media responsibility in election campaigning.

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) also issued a statement to "register its concerns", about the content of some radio talk shows. MATT President Dale Enoch said MATT has been monitoring some of the programmes and was not pleased.

"In fact MATT believes that some of the comments border on slander, may incite racial hatred and breach the conditions of the licence which governs radio stations in Trinidad and Tobago."

A letter to the editor in a daily newspaper, written by Diana Mahabir-Wyatt of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Against Violence, expressed the opinion that the Gladiator programme was an "incitement to racial violence".

But Johnson does not agree.

He said it was just a case of the presenter of that programme, Ricardo Welch, having "extremist views".

In any event, Johnson said, elections in Trinidad were all about race.

"The fact is the election results reflect racism in how people vote, that is how people line up in Trinidad and Tobago and some of the sentiments expressed on that programme speak to that. And we just want to keep burying our heads in the sand.

"It is not inciting anything, there are only people who think so."

However, managers responsible for programming at many of the radio stations which have talk show formats agreed that in the heat of the political season there was a need for some vigilance.

Tony Lee, programme manager for I95.5, said that station has not received any written or official correspondence complaining about any of its programmes. He added that while some callers to the various talk sessions did have a political bias, the station "never encourages racist statements or statements of divisiveness. Calls like these are cut off".

He also said that their studios were equipped with delay switches which allowed comments to be monitored before being aired.

Programme manager at Radio Masala 101.1, Daphney Nicole Gyan, said they have had no complaints and encouraged their announcers and callers to "keep it neutral".

"We like to believe that we have freedom of speech in this country, but it is not really so," she said.

Kiran Maharaj, general manager for 90.5, said the station agreed that there should be no racial or discriminatory bias.

"From the political point of view, we are in an electoral mode and callers will speak about politics. At 90.5 we always do an introduction telling them they cannot say anything libellous or scandalous. It's a matter of media houses ensuring no hatred is being built," she said.