• 18 JAN 2019

CORRECTION TO MISLEADING GUARDIAN ARTICLES

Today’s Trinidad Guardian article headlined: “PM: Sunwing wants Government to invest in Turtle Beach Hotel” written by Shaliza Hassanali is unfortunately misleading and false. At no time during the Prime Minister’s conversation with the media yesterday did he indicate that Sunwing made a request to the Government for participation or that the Government would be investing in Sunwing’s upgrade of Turtle Beach Hotel.

As such the article’s opening sentence “With Sandals Resorts International pulling out of Tobago all may not be lost for the island’s tourism sector, as Canadian-based Sunwing Travel Group wants the Government to invest in Turtle Beach Hotel which they recently acquired” is totally false.

Consequently the article’s further claim that the Prime Minister “opted not to give details as to when the upgrade will begin and the cost involved” is nothing short of malicious.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is not investing or contributing any costs to the upgrade of the Turtle Beach Hotel in Tobago.

Another article in today’s Guardian headlined, “Rowley speaks on Dragon Field Project” and written by Geisha Alonzo stated:

“In speaking about the Dragon Gas Field deal Rowley said it was surrounded in secrecy.”

Again, at no time during yesterday’s session did the Prime Minister indicate that this project was surrounded in secrecy. In fact the Prime Minister was at pains to point out that the Government continues to be transparent regarding its negotiations with Venezuela. He also pointed out that, to this end, he deliberately took the media with him on two official visits to Venezuela in furtherance of this objective.

The Prime Minister spent close to three hours in frank discussions with the media yesterday underscoring the importance of the need for the dissemination of accurate information and the role of the media and the Government in ensuring that the public is adequately and accurately informed.

It is therefore extremely disheartening that the reporting coming out of this session calls for these corrections before they take root and become a basis for persistent responses to damaging misinformation in Trinidad and Tobago.