PRESS STATEMENT

St. George, April 21, 2008 -- The Media Workers Association of Grenada (MWAG) is calling on political parties on the island to publicly condemn the recent attack on the media in the form of an anonymous and slanderous leaflet campaign.

MWAG is deeply concerned about what appears to be a deafening silence on the part of political organizations, roughly one week since two of our senior journalists have been targeted for political victimization.
 
We have noted, however, that only one political organization has openly spoken out against the attack, and believe that  such clandestine operation against members of the press is in clear violation of  press freedom. Therefore, we call on all political parties, trade unions, the religious community and civil society to condemn this most viciously threatening act in unison.
 
We are particularly concerned about this development in view of the important role the press plays in providing vital decision making information to the public in this an election year.
 
But we are also very alarmed on the ground that we have reasons to believe that government departments, resources and employees were used in the production of these mischievous flyers slandering the reputation of local media workers.
 
In the event that this incident is trivialized by those perpetrating ulterior motives, we must remind ourselves that Grenada is a signatory to the Declaration of Chapultepec, one of several treaties we have endorsed guaranteeing freedom of the press.
 
The current Prime Minister Dr.Keith Mitchell signed on to this treaty on the 22nd of June 1998, four years after its creation and in the presence of journalists and foreign officials during a news conference in St. George's.
 
The slanderous flyer campaign against members of the press is in violation of at least two of the ten principles of the Chapultepec Declaration which was adopted in Mexico City on March 11, 1994.

MWAG recalls that the late Alister Hughes was assaulted by supporters of the then ruling party in the 1970s at a public meeting after he was identified by top party officials as a journalist who supports the opposition.

MWAG also recalls that the ruling NNP during its convention in St. Patrick about five years ago had some of its supporters abusing and assaulting a GBN TV crew accusing them of being unfair to the ruling party.

By naming and putting the pictures of the two media workers and claiming that they were used by the NDC to ask questions at a press conference could lead to them being attacked by supporters.

MWAG shall not stand idly by and allow any political party, interest group or individual to trample on the rights of media workers. We are in the process of alerting our sister organisations across the Caribbean as well as the umbrella Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) with a view to seeking actionable solidarity. To attack the media is to launch a vicious assault on one of the most fundamental pillars of any democracy and by extension the people of this Great Nation of Ours.
 
Our association also calls on the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter so that the intellectual authors and the fabricators can be identified and prosecuted. We call on the RGPF to make public its progress so far in investigating this matter without compromising its future work on the case.
 
ENDS/MWAG/2008