International press body to visit Guyana

TIMES INT'L

The International Press Institute (IPI) plans to visit Guyana and several other Caribbean countries as part of its press freedom missions.

According to a Trinidad Guardian article, as the police continue investigations into the alleged breach at the Integrity Commission, the IPI plans to visit TT as part of its press freedom mission.

The Vienna-based organisation, which made the unprecedented decision to bring together more than 350 leading journalists from more than 70 countries to TT in June for its annual conference because of the country’s history of press freedom, has considered relocating the gathering after the raids at Newsday’s offices.

It is the first time the 62-year-old organisation will meet in the Caribbean. IPI Executive Director Bethel McKenzie said the group had considered relocating its conference, but instead it will add TT to the list of Caribbean nations it plans to visit ahead of the June gathering as part of its press freedom missions.

Other nations include Barbados and Guyana.

The missions, which include publishers and editors from around the world, are designed to “pressure governments into better press freedom practices,” McKenzie said.

Meanwhile, in a similar issue Reporters Without Borders (RSF) intervened in Haiti last year after three journalists at a state-owned TV station said they were fired because of their criticism of then President- elect Michel Martelly.

In a public rebuke of the action, the group called on Martelly to take a clear position on protecting press freedoms and editorial independence during his five-year term in office. Since then, reporters in Haiti have continued to complain, accusing the president of using abusive and even sometimes threatening language towards them. In December, a local radio station reported that a citizen holding a sign urging the press “to leave the president alone” was rewarded by Martelly with a new motorcycle at a public rally.

Related posts