Fol­low­ing is the full text of an e-mail sent to TV6 Head of News Do­minic Kaliper­sad by­In­for­ma­tion Min­is­ter Ja­mal Mo­hammed

Mr Kaliper­sad,

I write these few lines as a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go and a silent ob­serv­er of all things in the me­dia...

These words are not of­fi­cial Gov­ern­ment po­si­tions but just the vibes of an in­signif­i­cant, Mus­lim coolie from San Juan.

I re­spect your role in the me­dia and the years of ef­fort and sac­ri­fice you have carved in the me­dia fra­ter­ni­ty in our coun­try.

I may not al­ways agree with your point of view and opin­ions ex­pressed but I will give my life for you to have the free­dom to ex­press your­self.

I know the im­por­tance of a free press and I have seen for my­self what hap­pens when the me­dia is used and abused.

Some­thing seems to be go­ing on at TV6 and the Ex­press and it is not too nice.

A blind man can see that there is a clear bias at both TV6 and Ex­press.

On the one hand, items and re­ports are be­ing pre­sent­ed in the name of in­ves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism and the on­ly ra­tio­nale for these re­ports is to em­bar­rass cer­tain in­di­vid­u­als.

Per­cep­tions are be­ing en­cour­aged and these per­cep­tions are based on lies, half-truths and in­nu­en­do.

It is clear to me that there is a spe­cif­ic agen­da to dis­cred­it Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and mem­bers of her Gov­ern­ment. Since May 2010, I have seen for my­self a de­lib­er­ate and tar­get­ed bar­rage of ac­cu­sa­tions and mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions about the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship as if there is an ul­ti­mate ob­jec­tive to make the Gov­ern­ment fall. Notwith­stand­ing the fact that the Part­ner­ship re­ceived an over­whelm­ing man­date from the Peo­ple, TV6 and Ex­press have em­barked on a sad jour­ney to dis­cred­it and de­stroy.

To make mat­ters worse, a de­lib­er­ate pro­gramme has ap­peared on both TV6 and the Ex­press, where the PNM is be­ing re-brand­ed, re­freshed and re-aligned so that it will be­come a new PNM ready for gov­er­nance with the fall of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship.

I have no­ticed that any­time {with­out ex­cep­tion} there is a per­ceived prob­lem con­cern­ing the Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment, there is al­ways a PNM of­fi­cial ready, will­ing and able to make a com­ment.

This is most un­for­tu­nate.

May I re­mind you, Mr Kaliper­sad, that I re­spect the views of TV6 and Ex­press. If it is the wish of the Ed­i­to­r­i­al Board to see the re­moval of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship, I have no prob­lem with that. That is their right and priv­i­lege so to do. As a pri­vate com­pa­ny, you all have every right to go in any di­rec­tion. All I wish is that you be fair.

Stop the mud-sling­ing and spec­u­la­tion against mem­bers of the Gov­ern­ment and be will­ing to let peo­ple de­fend de­ci­sions that have been made. With­in the PNM, there is a view that no one else has the right to gov­ern this land and up to to­day, we of­ten hear that "this is PNM coun­try".

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, this my­opic and naive view can nev­er be true. There are many oth­er cit­i­zens, not of the PNM, who are quite ca­pa­ble of of­fer­ing lead­er­ship in this land. We should be will­ing to change and en­cour­age change in this coun­try.

For too long, we have been caught in a back­ward and dan­ger­ous mode of main­tain­ing stu­pid and ar­cha­ic ways of deal­ing with our prob­lems.

Whether we like it or not, the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship was giv­en a man­date to change the way we do busi­ness in this coun­try. Those who fight to main­tain the sta­tus quo must now give way to mean­ing­ful change.

Let it not be one-way traf­fic for the PNM or an or­gy of em­bar­rass­ment for the Part­ner­ship.

The the­o­ry of the free press is not that the truth will be pre­sent­ed com­plete­ly or per­fect­ly in any one in­stance but that truth will emerge from free dis­cus­sion.

Breathe easy, broth­er.

There is room for all of us.

Ja­mal

Source: http://www.trinidad­ex­press.com/news/Text_of_let­ter_to_TV6_Head_of_News_Do­minic_Kaliper­sad-175715821.html