The Trinidad & To­ba­go Pub­lish­ers & Broad­cast­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTP­BA) says it is stand­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Guyanese jour­nal­ists cov­er­ing the re­cent na­tion­al elec­tions in Guyana—and its af­ter­math.

In re­cent days, there have been sev­er­al threats of vi­o­lence against jour­nal­ists re­port­ing on the elec­tions de­vel­op­ments.

The Guyana Press As­so­ci­a­tion (GPA) has called for an end to threats against me­dia work­ers.

The full text of the TTP­BA’s state­ment on the mat­ter, fol­lows…

The Trinidad & To­ba­go Pub­lish­ers & Broad­cast­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTP­BA) ac­knowl­edges with deep con­cern, the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Guyana, with re­gard to the treat­ment of jour­nal­ists cov­er­ing the events fol­low­ing the March 2 Gen­er­al Elec­tions.

We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Guyana Press As­so­ci­a­tion (GPA) who have re­port­ed that “me­dia op­er­a­tives are in­creas­ing­ly be­com­ing the tar­gets of at­tacks re­lat­ed to the on­go­ing post­elec­tions sit­u­a­tion. GPA has re­ceived sev­er­al re­ports of threats of vi­o­lence against jour­nal­ists on so­cial me­dia and at­tempts to in­ter­fere with the work of me­dia op­er­a­tives cov­er­ing events that have fol­lowed the March 2 Gen­er­al and Re­gion­al Elec­tions.”

The TTP­BA joins in the call by the GPA for the lead­er­ship of all po­lit­i­cal par­ties, state au­thor­i­ties and in­ter­est groups "to open­ly dis­cour­age ac­tions that can have the im­pact of un­der­min­ing the work of jour­nal­ists and their me­dia en­ter­pris­es."

Press Free­dom is a crit­i­cal pil­lar of democ­ra­cy to­geth­er with the right of the peo­ple to know.

In any so­ci­ety where such free­dom is be­ing un­der­mined through acts of in­tim­i­da­tion, it is up to lead­ers and those who act as watch­dogs to step in and ad­dress cir­cum­stances which can have se­vere reper­cus­sions on a na­tion.