On May 3rd, World Press Freedom Day, TT journalists must be lauded as Trinidad and Tobago moved up in the World Press Freedom ranking by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF or Reporters Without Borders) ranking by six points from 31 to 25 out of 180 countries.

RSF described the media landscape in TT as a “parliamentary democracy with a vibrant media landscape and civil society, freedom of the press is a constitutionally guaranteed and widely respected right. Media pluralism is strong with multiple media outlets expressing a multitude of viewpoints.”

The watchdog organisation reports that with “zero journalists imprisoned, killed or missing in 2021, Trinidad and Tobago provides a generally safe and protected environment for the profession.”

According to its website, the RSF World Press Freedom Index compares journalists’ level of freedom in 180 countries and territories.

This comparison is based on a definition of press freedom formulated by RSF and compiled based on responses from press freedom specialists in 180 countries.

Press freedom indicators include political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and safety.

However, both RSF and TT journalists recognise these numbers reflect a sharp vigilance to ensure freedom of the press, which continually comes under threat from the institutions over which it acts as a watchdog, and also greater threats to journalists elsewhere.

In TT today, journalists remain watchful over the potentially chilling effects of problematic items of legislation, including…

  • The Financial Intelligence Act
  • The Data Protection Act (Interception of Communications Act)
  • The Integrity in Public Life Act
  • The Criminal Libel and Defamation Act
  • The Cybercrime Bill 2017

In this past year, the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) has been continually vigilant over the media’s access to State-held press conferences and information in the population’s interest.

On this day, the MATT stands in reflection and grief as the Committee to Protect Journalists (an independent, nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide) reports that some 67 journalists and media workers were killed in 2022, the highest number since 2018, an increase of 50% from 2021.

The CPJ attributes this rise in journalists’ deaths to the number of journalists killed covering the Ukraine war and, concerningly for our region, “a sharp rise in killings in Latin America.”

The CPJ claims that “more than half of the 67 killings occurred in just three countries– Ukraine (15), Mexico  (13), and Haiti (7), the highest yearly numbers CPJ has ever recorded for these countries.

In Mexico and Haiti, reporters were “the targets of brutal murders for their work”, with the “vast majority of perpetrators” not being held accountable.

Mexico features on CPJ’s “Global Impunity Index”, which features countries where killers get away with murder.

Media workers continue to stand in strong solidarity with one another here in T&T and with our colleagues globally and reaffirm our pledge to continue to be, without fear or favour, a voice of the people and a watchdog over the institutions that govern this democratic nation.