On December 02, 2023, Ira Mathur, president of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago formally handed over to interim president Dale Enoch at the first meeting of the interim executive. At that meeting, she read the following statement…

The Media Association of T&T, formed 35 years back by a group of print journalists, is a powerful voice of the fourth estate and a pillar of democracy. Today, that small group of journalists has burgeoned alongside technology into an influential but fragmented community of hundreds of media workers in every field including online platforms.

Our team is committed to twin aims: maintaining the solid fourth estate built by our predecessors and functioning as watchdogs to hold those powers accountable. The vibrant, outgoing team was assembled to catapult MATT into the age of technology and bring freelance colleagues and those working in silos into a fraternity that supports training, standards, cohesion, cross-fertilisation, and excellence.

Media workers across platforms have joined MATT using a red-tape-free online form to build professional support. For those old enough to remember the virtual media blackout in 1990, with only a single radio station (NBS Radio 610) allowing dialogue to bring the crisis to a close, we understand the desolation when media – the mirror to our world is turned off.

While the tenets of the freedom of the press remain as robust as they have since the formation of MATT 35 years ago, we felt, two years ago, it was also our duty to uplift the invisible ones – my colleagues, who have been silently and under trying circumstances, supporting the fourth estate with fortitude, never faltering in their duty even when they were challenged.

In the past two years, we have acknowledged a great legacy but also recognised the need to keep the membership actively engaged and we did so by expanding the membership scope of MATT.
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We trust that the interim executive will note the problematic items of legislation which command the attention of MATT, including a) the Financial Intelligence Act, Data Protection Act (Interception of Communications Act, the Integrity in Public Life Act, Criminal Libel and Defamation and the Cybercrime Bill 2017. We acknowledge this legislation can criminalise journalists and remove protection for those working in the public interest.

I am very proud of my executive team of the last two years, including Mark Lyndersay, Robert Taylor, Nicole Romany, Kandace Jackson, James Saunders and Clayton Clarke. As a team, we pulled our membership through some of the challenges of covid 19.

Matt entered October 2021 with around a dozen active and thirty overall members and increased this to between 132 and 180 active members on our WhatsApp group using our online platform.

Despite not having access to MATT’s bank accounts funds, the outgoing executive executed the following projects.

  • We recognised several photojournalists previously overlooked by the association for their excellence in journalism.
  • We intervened to ensure that despite the COVID restrictions, the government’s press conferences during covid-19, a frightening time for the world, were made more accessible for MATT members, who could submit their questions through the association.
  • We encouraged the establishment of a pool of photojournalists could cover significant events in Parliament when covid-19 restrictions limited available attendance slots, thereby creating greater access for journalists and a greater sense of fraternity between newspapers and the political system.
  • We were able to offer necessary protection for our frontline journalists by providing N95 masks to news and media organisations, which were donated by SewaTT.
  • MATT hosted several online educational sessions, including journalism and the law with Justice Kathy Ann Waterman ( we also donated several of her books to the fraternity, kindly purchased by Guardian Media and the MIC). There were workshops on COVID misinformation with the Medical Association, the journalist and digital publishing with practising online journalists, and recognition of the stress journalists face daily with a mental wellness webinar.
  • Mark Lyndersay ensured that MATT has an updated online platform.
  • We have the digitised boxes of MATT archives that were being carried around from place to place, which I will hand over today.

Most importantly, we have undertaken the daunting process of getting MATT NGO status, which I trust this interim executive will be able to complete.

As immediate past-president, I came in when I saw a membership faltering, though not the profession. My mission has always been to create a robust and inclusive fraternity across platforms and pass this legacy to younger journalists. I have done this with the help of my executive.

So, I end by urging all journalists to engage. The Fourth Estate is a strong pillar of democracy. We are charged with an enormous responsibility.

Despite the challenges of work and other commitments, we cannot let this slip because without our united attention, our entire democracy is under threat.
I urge the entire membership to get involved and stay involved. Together, we are stronger.

We believe that there will be a more significant response to our call for nominations in three months. We have built a democratic institution with flattened responsibilities, so nobody needs to fear being put on the spot or getting needlessly trolled.

I sincerely thank the incoming interim executive, specifically the president Dale Enoch, for stepping in to lead at a crucial time despite his personal and professional commitments.

Huge thanks too to all the incoming interim journalists who, despite hectic schedules, committed to upholding TT’s fourth estate – Kandace Jackson (VP), Mark Lyndersay (Treasurer), Secretary Phillip Matheson, Assistant Secretary Gregory McBurnie, with Andrew Gioannetti and Robert Taylor as floor members.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Judy Raymond, currently Editorial Consultant at TTNewsday, who has used her vast experience and depth of understanding as a journalist, editor and writer to support MATT.

At the quorum of the previous executive and as already announced, Judy Raymond and I will continue to support this incoming interim executive in an advisory role to support a free and independent press in T&T as trustees of MATT

Thank you

Ira Mathur, December 02, 2023