Outcry in Trinidad and Tobago after passing of police bill that could threaten press freedom
- Journalists in Trinidad and Tobago have called for an urgent amendment to a sweeping new bill that boosts police powers of search and seizure, which they argue threatens the country’s much-vaunted freedom of the press.
- The government says the Special Operations Bill 2026, passed on 24 September, is designed to tackle alarmingly high crime and murder rates in the Caribbean nation.
- The country has spent more than a year in an almost perpetual state of emergency, with police empowered to bypass normal constitutional rights around arrest, detention and search and seizure.
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- Journalists in Trinidad and Tobago have called for an urgent amendment to a sweeping new bill that boosts police powers of search and seizure, which they argue threatens the country’s much-vaunted freedom of the press.
- The government says the Special Operations Bill 2026, passed on 24 September, is designed to tackle alarmingly high crime and murder rates in the Caribbean nation.
- The country has spent more than a year in an almost perpetual state of emergency, with police empowered to bypass normal constitutional rights around arrest, detention and search and seizure.
Sources: Guardian