The Media Association notes with concern the Prime Minister’s recent refusal to engage with a reporter during a press conference held at Piarco on July 02.

It is vital that officials remain aware of the power imbalance implicit in their positions and those of journalists who question them privately and at press conferences as representatives of the public interest.

When press conferences turn personal, there is the potential to create a chilling effect in the form of self censorship of the journalistic cross-examination of issues in the public interest.

MATT stands by media practitioners’ duty to press home questions with officials in the public and private sector, and to expect that civility will govern discourse on matters of national concern on both sides.