THE MEETING THAT NEVER WAS

A few weeks ago, the Media Association called a meeting that was supposed to be held at CNMG (on World Press Freedom Day).
The aim of the meeting was for "members of the association to come and share their concerns about threats to press freedoms in Trinidad and Tobago, whether from the public or the private sectors." The speakers were supposed to be "Angelica Hunte of United Nations Information Centre and veteran journalist Tony Fraser."

Well as we understand, the meeting never came off, mainly because journalists/reporters snailed in and the presenters left, so those who crawled in later just sat and chatted among themselves about media woes. Tsk tsk.

No wonder there's such a paucity of quality reporting in the media today if those who are in the profession for one reason or another refused to attend this meeting where they could get information on how to improve their craft.
Or perhaps there's the feeling that press freedom in Trinidad and Tobago is not under threat (especially since some journalists are allowed to write biased reports about their favourite or least favourite political parties or institutions without sanction).
Maybe if it was compulsory job training with a promise of refreshments MATT president Joanne Briggs probably would have had to beat them off with a stick!

Well Joanne, we will keep doing our thing on your behalf since it seems this is one of the few places where journalists can get free tips on how to improve their writing.
And feel free to write to us about upcoming MATT events. Who knows, we may pop in to get some advice ourselves.

BTW, At the meeting journalists were also supposed to get a chance to update their MATT membership. Can we ask what that membership figure is?