EXECUTIVE director of the International Press Institute (IPI) Alison Bethel McKenzie has called on the Government to take steps to ensure a disproportionate show of force like that evidenced in the police raid of TV6 last Thursday does not happen again.
The raid on TV6 by a team of 18 police officers yesterday received the attention of the IPI, with an article entitled “Trinidad and Tobago police raid broadcaster” posted on IPI’s website, freemedia.at.
The IPI “is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists dedicated to the furtherance and safeguarding of press freedom, the protection of freedom of opinion and expression, the promotion of the free flow of news and information, and the improvement of the practices of journalism”.
On Thursday, ASP Ajith Persad from the Central Police Station headquarters led a team of officers to execute a search warrant at TV6.
TV6 is a subsidiary of the Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) and is housed at Express House on Independence Square in Port of Spain.
The officers were in search of an October 31 tape aired on the Crime Watch programme hosted by Ian Alleyne.
The tape is expected to assist the police in their investigation into the airing of an alleged sexual assault on a mentally-disabled 13-year-old girl.
Commenting on the raid, McKenzie said: “A raid by police on a media house always raises profound issues of freedom of the press and the permissible scope of government action. We are very disappointed that authorities decided to send… armed officers to CCN’s offices to look for a single videotape they could have obtained by asking.
“Such actions inevitably have a chilling effect on media freedom and we urge the Government to take steps to make sure that disproportionate shows of force like this don’t become a habit,” she said.
Dawn Thomas, chief executive officer of One Caribbean Media Ltd, of which CCN is a part, said the incident has left many of the station’s staff traumatised.
Thomas, a member of IPI’s executive board, said, “This unnecessary show of force by the police was against a background of a cooperative stance from the management of CCN on other occasions that video material was requested by the police. “I am very concerned about this development since it has the potential to intimidate media staff, undermine public confidence and poses a threat to press freedom,” she said.
CCN chairman Joseph Esau has written to Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs, requesting a full investigation into the procedures and protocols used by the police. (Trinidad Express)
