Information Minister Neil Parsanlal greets delegates at UNESCO’s second Caribbean Multi-Media Centres Consultation yesterday at Kapok Hotel, St Clair. Photo: Keith Matthews

Information Minister Neil Parsanlal yesterday questioned the effects of the media and the need to have balanced reporting with free independence and responsibility. Parsanlal was speaking at the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) second Caribbean Multi-Media Centres Consultation at Kapok Hotel, St Clair. “The contribution of free independent and pluralistic media to sustainable development in T&T and the wider Caribbean region,” was the theme of his address to participants from several Caribbean countries. “Is there a free, independent and pluralistic media in T&T?” Parsanlal asked. “Since they cannot report or print everything, the media choose which issues to highlight and which to ignore,” he added. He said many people argued that the role of the media was not to do public relations work for the Government.

“It is therefore important that there be a well-balanced system of reporting, where all stakeholders can make valid and meaningful contributions to the development of the country based on information,” Parsanlal said. He said the media identified problems in society and played the watchdog over Government and other powerful institutions in society. “Imperfectly the media can expose truth and hold public officials accountable for their actions,” he added. He said T&T boasted of six television stations, 37 radio stations, three daily newspapers, seven weekly papers and a million registered mobile phone users, “all of them providing news and information with various degrees of accuracy, creating the most dynamic media market in the region.”