Susan Gordon, Staff Reporter
A security officer stands guard in the conference room of the second United Nations World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, on November 16, 2005. U.N. envoys and Human Rights Watch have accused Tunisia, which hosts the U.N. conference this week, of repressing press freedoms and writers and blocking websites critical of the government. - REUTERS
JOURNALISTS REGION-WIDE are still facing great challenges from the governments and agents of the states in doing their jobs.
In the year 2005, more than 10 violations of freedom of expression were committed against Jamaican and Trinidadian media practitioners, as they carried out their journalistic duties.
The violations fell in three categories. Agents of the states either attempted to censor or exert pressure on forms of expression, withhold infor-mation, thus denying journalists access to it or intimidate journalists and destroy their equipment.
When one considers that the 10 violations represent only two of the English-speaking Caribbean and exclude those cases which have not been formally reported through the media, the claim of a liberal press in the region is exaggerated.
The 2004 World Press Freedom Review stated that Jamaica has a media that is "Largely free to express critical views without significant restrictions."
Certainly, the state and journalists must be reminded that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression," and those who violate it are in breach of Section three of the Jamaican Constitution and also Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
Article 13 explains that this right includes freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, regardless of borders; and by any means of communication without racial, political, national, gender religious or economic discrimination.
THREATS TO PRESS FREEDOM
As a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the arm of the Organisation of American States (OAS) responsible for protecting this right, Jamaica is obligated to observe free speech.
Nonetheless, last year local media workers encountered threats to the freedom of expression, from the police force, parliamentarians and the judiciary. Members of the Jamaica Constabulary force violated principle nine of Article 13 in the Freedom of Expression Act, when they roughed up Television Jamaica's (TVJ) cameraman, Eldorado Mullings, while he was videotaping a police operation in downtown Kingston in August 2005.
Principle nine states that it is the duty of the government to prevent and investigate when occurrences such as the murder, kidnapping, intimidation of and or threats to social communicators as well as the material destruction of communication media, violates freedom of expression.
Members of the police force objected to Mr. Mullings' filming their removing unauthorised street vendors and in a struggle took away his camera. The camera was later returned to the television station without a written apology.
Similarly, according to the Trinidad's Guardian newspaper, Mirror photo-journalist Suzette Edwards-Lewis was allegedly roughed up by policeman while covering a story in Port-of-Spain in January 2005.
According to reports, she claimed she was arrested on Monday, January 31, 2005, as she tried to photograph police handcuffing several school children disturbing the peace at a pre-carnival event. She said police stripped her of her blouse and then beat her on her arm and back.
Mrs. Edwards-Lewis faced charges for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice.
VIDEO FOOTAGE ERASED
Other such violations against Freedom of Expression in the forms of intimidation occurred on January 12, 2005, in Trinidad when freelance television cameraman Ivan Toolsie, was in the process of video-taping illegal dumping and leaking sewers on the San Fernando General Hospital compound. He was detained by the MTS security guards, (employed by the State) at the San Fernando General Hospital and 'encouraged' by them to erase the video footage that he had just shot. The Trinidad Guardian newspaper also reported in August last year of a photo-journalists, Stephen Doobay, whose digital media card was removed from his camera by a police officer while he tried to photograph the flood damage at the Caroni Police Station in Trinidad. The card was then flung into the muddy waters.
In Jamaica, there were violations associated with principle four of Article 13 which speaks of the right to access to information held by the State. Last year, weekly update of the murder statistics from the Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) were inaccessible to journalists. These statistics, which were once released on a weekly basis, were stopped for some time under the pretext that the one officer in the police statistics unit was ill and had gone on leave.
The statistics are now released quarterly, thus altering the timely flow of information. Some journalists felt the police did this because they did not want to alarm the population of the high crime figures. Thankfully, closer to the end of January 2006, the CCN made these weekly statistics available to journalists once more. The police force recently announced a 23 per cent decline in crime rate.
SLAMMED THE BRAKES
The Gleaner's Enterprise Editor Phyllis Thomas felt her rights were violated last year when she encountered difficulties trying to access information. She said ever since the publication of a number of revealing articles, including the travel pattern and expenses of Prime Minister P. J. Patterson published in September, the Government offices have denied her and her team access to information. "The powerful feet of the authorities have slammed the brake," said Ms. Thomas. "Getting results is now tediously slow."
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has reminded Caribbean journalists that they have the right to file petitions when they feel their rights have been breached or violated. The IACHR is persuaded that the right to freedom of expression is essential for the development of knowledge and understanding among people.
