SHARMILLA'S SPECIAL REPORT

So Sharmilla Persad at TV6. You wrapped up your special report on crime last night after a full five days, but certain key figures in the fight were missing.
1. National Security Minister Martin Joseph. He is the policy maker, not one of the policemen you were blaming on the first night. He should have been the main thread throughout your series, so that you could have played his comments off everyone else's.

2. Dr Stephen Mastrofski. The man whose national crime plan was favoured over Rudy Giuliani's and who was paid millions of tax payers' dollars.

3. Police Commissioner Trevor Paul, as well as his collaborators, SAUTT and the defence force. Not a word from any of these people who are in the daily front line in the battle against crime. They are the ones whose input the minister will seek when he is developing policy.

And we have some questions about those you actually spoke with.
1. Professor John La Guerre. He is a political scientist, not an expert on crime, unless you were making a subliminal link which was never established.

2. The man in the street. Which person in Trinidad and Tobago do you think you can speak with today who will tell you that crime does not or has not affected them? I am sure you could have interviewed people in your newsroom who have had experiences of their own (Sasha Mohammed's brother was kidnapped).

3. Gregory Sloane Seale. Yes we know he is an advocate for troubled youths, and a large number of crimes are committed by young people. But you did not establish that link with your report, nor did you establish how he came to speak about the crimes that are being committed against little children, like Shania.

In Media Watch's estimation, you missed the mark there because if you truly wanted to incorporate that aspect into your report, from day one you should have established the links in your viewers' minds, then fleshed out each idea separately. Then you failed to speak with the one person who has been the main advocate in the senate for laws to protect children, and that's Diana Mahabir Wyatt. Where was she in all of this?
And why didn't you speak with the Social Development Minister, under whose portfolio many of these issues are linked?

So overall your series was not effective. It left too many holes, and you looked bored while interviewing La Guerre and Sloane Seale, as if you weren't interested in issues they were speaking about.

Back to the drawing board.