Censoring Trinidad and Tobago’s media

However, one of the morning’s interesting and for some questionable comments came from a practitioner in the tourism field calling for the media to stop reporting so frequently on crime – especially on the front pages and in the major headlines – since it damage’s the country’s reputation and reduces its appeal to tourists.

Judette Coward-Puglisi – President of the IABC T&T – posted this comment on my previous post:

“I found this morning’s session terrific for several reasons, the primary one being that journalists and communicators walked in each other’s shoes for a few hours and at the end, found some common ground on which to stand. Of particular interest to me was the TDC’s plea to remove crime from the front pages since it affected visitor arrival.Journalists on the panel cried censorship. Their thinking? Perish the idea that T&T can go the way of Barbados and Jamaica and pull crime off the front pages.What are your thoughts? Is this a censorship issue?”

When you look up the synonyms for censorship in the thesaurus, they include restriction, suppression, control, and editing. The antonym? Freedom.

As communicators we shouldn’t seek to censor the press, even if such a scenario will make our jobs easier. I understand the challenges facing practitioners in the tourism industry, especially since crime is always on or in the country’s media houses’ headlines. However, the journalists are reporting actual events. Yes, it might be more tourism friendly to not have those stories published. However, the reporters are doing their job. Some may argue that crime occurs everyday and has been going on for a quite a while. That’s true, but one must also consider is the fact that journalists are also historians in a sense, and right now they’re documenting a dark period in the country’s social history.

People ask if crime still sells. It does. It seems the same fascination people have with horror stories spills into their appetite for news stories. When the Newsday emerged as the good news paper, its sales struggled. One day, however, they reported a crime story on the front page. The newspaper sold like hot potatoes. That was years ago. But crime still sells. If it didn’t, the newspapers would have already switched to another source of news for headlines and front page stories.

While countries like Barbados and Jamaica and their journalists have agreed to not publish crime on the front pages, the fact is that these journalists have agreed to censorship. They have agreed to report to an editor who is not a member of the media house. So what? Crime now? What next? Poor conduct by companies? Or politicians’ actions?

From a realist perspective, every profession has its own huge challenges. Our challenge as communicators is to be creative when faced with an obstacle like having to promote a crime-riddled country. There are people like me who much rather prefer to be in Trinidad. There are people like me who feel safe. There are people who realise that crime occurs everywhere. The difference between Trinidad and Tobago and the UK or US is that they have local, as well as national newspapers. So the crime, unless it’s terrorism or something else as sensational, remain on the front pages of just the local papers. So you won’t see crime on the front page of the Guardian (UK) or its other major nationals. But in T&T where we just have 1.3 million people and three daily newspapers, well crime is going to be on the front pages.

The challenge then, is how to promote the positive aspects of Trinidad, and show that while we have crime, like any other country, safety still is a reality (that’s really relative) and that there are huge benefits to visiting out beautiful shores. I would also think that lobbying with Government for greater protection of citizens, neighbourhoods and popular spots, as well as coming up with various initiatives and tips for visitors would form part of an integrated, well-thought plan.