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JUSTICE Frank Seepersad’s ruling on Wednesday that a police raid on a media house last March was unlawful is not only a victory for journalists; it is a victory for everyone who lives in TT.
The framers of our constitution saw fit to enshrine freedom of the press as a fundamental right, separate from freedom of thought and expression.
They acknowledged the important role played by the media in any democracy and, perhaps, also anticipated the unique challenges that members of the Fourth Estate in this small country would face. Their foresight proved warranted.
Judge rules police raid on media house unconstitutional
Wednesday 13 January 2021
THE police raid on a media house in March last year has been deemed unconstitutional by the court.
Justice Frank Seepersad held on Wednesday that the two search warrants obtained by the police for the media house in search of information which could lead them to a journalist’s source were “plainly irregular,” unlawful and unconstitutional, as they disproportionally infringed on the media house’s rights to freedom of the press.
“The decision to issue the warrants failed to strike the required balance between the interest to investigate the summary offence of ‘tipping off’ on the one hand and the right to press freedom as well as the right of the journalist who authored the articles to protect the confidentiality of her source on the other,” he said.
Judge to rule in January on Express House raid
Friday 11 December 2020
A HIGH COURT judge will rule in January on the constitutionality of a police raid on a media house in March.
At the end of submissions at the virtual trial on Friday, Justice Frank Seepersad set January 13 for his ruling on the constitutional claim filed by One Caribbean Media Group Ltd, the Trinidad Express Newspapers and editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder against the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and Supt Wendell Lucas, who led the raid on March 11.
The media house has contended that the warrants issued by a justice of the peace to search the premises were unconstitutional, unlawful, arbitrary, unnecessary, and disproportionate. It also says it contravened its right to freedom of the press guaranteed in the Constitution.