ONCE the precedent is set in the United States, you can bet your bottom dollar that the fascists here in TnT will follow suit, as soon as possible.

It was the case with the Anti-Terrorism legislation, the local Bill which was drafted along the lines of the US Patriot Act and which was hastily passed in Parliament without extensive and analytical debate and quickly used to jail Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr.

Now, both Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Attorney General, John Jeremie, seem to be following in the footsteps of their predecessor, Ramesh Maharaj who all and sundry believe initiated the jailing of a former editor of this newspaper on contempt of court charges, during the trial of Dole Chadee so many years ago.

Back then, it followed the trend set by Ramesh’s boss, Basdeo Panday, who was instrumental in getting top rankers at the Trinidad Guardian fired from the job.

RAMESH
MAHARAJ

JOHN VICTOR

Therefore it was downright disgusting to see Ramesh last week pretending to be defender of the media when in fact he set the precedent a few years ago and would do it all again, if he is given the chance to sit in that office once more.

And he will definitely walk down the path now being set by the US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, where journalists will be prosecuted for leaking classified information.

For the records, please take note of the current trends in the United States, which, in the near future will be used by the local authorities to jam journalists here.

Already, the Anti-Terrorism legislation is replete with clauses that can be used against local scribes, conveniently.

And with a real wimp like John Victor as head of the local Media Association, I am sure that they will get by easily because I am already convinced that many of our telephones are tapped and our e-mails can be easily intercepted.

The following report was found on the Court TV website and it is sourced from the Associated Press: “Prosecuting reporters who reveal State secrets endangers not only freedom of speech, but the public’s right to know what politicians and government officials are up to, says an advocate for journalists.

“The nation’s (US) top law enforcer, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, says he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.

Gonzales also said Sunday, the Bush administration would not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation.

He said officials would not do so routinely and randomly.

“There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility,” Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions.

“We have an obligation to enforce those laws.

“We have an obligation to ensure that our national security is protected.”

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said she presumed that Gonzales was referring to the 1917 Espionage Act, which she said has never been interpreted to prosecute journalists who were providing information to the public.

“I can’t imagine a bigger chill on free speech and the public’s right to know what it’s government is up to -- both hallmarks of a democracy -- than prosecuting reporters,” Dalglish said.

In recent months, journalists have been called into court to testify as part of investigations into leaks, including the unauthorised disclosure of a CIA operative’s name as well as the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping programme.

Gonzales said he would not comment specifically on whether The New York Times should be prosecuted for disclosing the NSA programme last year based on classified information.

He also denied that authorities would randomly check journalists’ records on domestic-to-domestic phone calls in an effort to find journalists’ confidential sources.

“We don’t engage in domestic-to-domestic surveillance without a court order,” Gonzales said, under a “probable cause” legal standard.

But he added that the First Amendment right of a free Press should not be absolute when it comes to national security.

If the government’s probe into the NSA leak turns up criminal activity, prosecutors have an “obligation to enforce the law.

“It can’t be the case that that right trumps over the right that Americans would like to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal activity,” Gonzales told ABC’s This Week.

Well, that’s not just a warning; it’s a wake up call, because journalists in Argentina are already under pressure.

Two broadcast journalists, Radio Mitre reporter Ernesto Tenembaum and América TV producer Luis Majul, that their personal e-mail accounts were hacked and used to send messages to other people.

This follows a similar case, reported on May 11, involving Daniel Santoro of the Clarín daily newspaper.

Tenembaum said during his Radio Mitre programme yesterday that some of his e-mail messages, containing off-the-record exchanges with officials and judges, had been sent from his own e-mail address without his knowledge to members of the government and other journalists.

He said he discovered this from fellow journalist Marcelo Slotogwiadza, who had himself received by e-mail part of Tenembaum’s exchanges with interior minister Aníbal Fernández, supreme court justice Eugenio Zaffaroni, Quilmes mayor Jorge Villordo, former judge Pablo Lanusse, and Santoro, the first journalist to report that his e-mail had been hacked.

Majul, who is the producer of the programme La Cornisa, said that on May 21, he discovered that a message containing the e-mail addresses of leading political and business personalities had been sent to some of his contacts from his own e-mail address.

He said this kind of manipulation happens “whenever there is tension between the press and the authorities.”

Fellow journalists, please take warning!