Former Independent senator Professor Ramesh Deosaran is lending his support to both media professionals and Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith stance on the reporting of suspected gang leaders/members.
In a statement issued yesterday, Deosaran said Griffith’s publicised displeasure about the media’s “glorification of gangsters” had attracted a spontaneous denial by the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) as well as several journalists, noting such denial rested on “freedom of the press.”
He said he believes press freedom is indeed important and added that since 1962, were it not for a robust media in this country “political corruption and abuse would have been worse.”
“However, the relationship between the media, gangs and the police has become a special case now deserving deep introspection by media themselves. The gang problem is now a serious political problem too,” Deosaran said.
“MATT says ‘Journalists must report all sides.’ Griffith says ‘It is not a level playing field.’ There are times when editors should also think and act as citizens. Apart from the material gains (money, guns, drugs, sex, housing, etc), gangsters crave and, according to their rank, demand respect and recognition both by gang members and mass media. Like terrorists. It is the glue that consolidates their power and attractiveness. Such deeply-rooted cultural values must be understood if alternatives to the “gang culture” are considered,” he added.
During an interview on CNC3’s The Morning Brew on Monday, Griffith criticised the media’s coverage of gang leader, especially in the wake of the recent police raids in Port-of-Spain.
“At some point, we must understand that giving prominence to persons of interest only adds to the perception and glorification of the gang mentality. Why are they (media) so eager to find the views and comments of the very few that support criminals and benefit from criminal behaviour?”
Deosaran, however, noted that Griffith should add to his comments the extent to which widespread media publicity of gang suspects also unwittingly helps to perpetuate the be-jewelled gang culture and attract recruits.
“This is where the media and the general public would have had a better understanding of the Commissioner’s gangster challenges. And further, help encourage the media, in addition to their press freedom defence, think among themselves whether a more judicious crafting of gangster-related stories are justified in the dangerous circumstances facing the country. Neither absolute censorship nor unrestrained reportage,” Deosaran said.
Making reference to allegations from Sea Lots businessman Cedric “Burkie” Burke against police “mishandling” of his children, Deosaran said that it should be reported but added that it is now for Griffith to respond.
He also mentioned a photograph in the media that showed former Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal publicly shaking hands with Beetham Gardens resident Kenneth “Spanish” Rodriguez at a construction site in 2013, saying that it should be published.
“The institutionalised habit of politicians – from central to local government – handing out contracts out of fear or for voting support must be reported and condemned. Hiding under the cover technical jargon and “welfare” projects no longer fool a disgusted public,” Deosaran said.
He added: “The rapid and subversive escalation of gangs in this country now endangers lawful business, the political system and democracy itself. The media seem to have missed the dangers during the early days. The perverse, corruptible linkages between certain well-positioned politicians and gangster clientism began fomenting since the seventies with Crash Programme and DEWD up to the nineties, where gangs became disguised “party functionaries” promising not only “community peace” but voting support.”
Deosaran, who said he was a first-hand witness in 1981, advised that the Government should provide good education and sustainable jobs in the various communities.
