The Media Complaints Council (MCC) announces the appointment of new members to the Council, effective 1st June 2025. The Council members received their instruments of appointment from Douglas Wilson, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA).
The members of the MCC are:
Lennox Grant (Chairman)
Stephen Wilson
Joanne Tracy Farrag
Charles Carter
The Council was established in 1997 after the then government produced a green paper on the media. The Trinidad & Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) saw the need to establish an independent body charged with enforcing a Code of Practice that was adopted by the media.
The MCC facilitates the public’s interest as they can raise concerns about media content. These are investigated and the council holds media organisations accountable for ethical breaches and inaccuracies. This ensures transparency as the public has recourse for addressing grievances. The MCC, in effect, benefits society as it increases accountability, allows for dispute resolution and supports ethical and independent journalism.
The Council is intended to
- help maintain public trust and confidence in the news media by promoting fairness, courtesy and balance and by creating a forum where the public and the news media can engage each other in examining standards of journalist fairness;
- ensure members of the Trinidad & Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association comply with the Code of Practice;
- achieve a quick, effective, and fair resolution of complaints by members of the public against the news media, through mediation
Additionally, the regulatory body for broadcasters – the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad & Tobago, has included into its Draft Broadcast Code, the recommendation for co-regulation via the Media Complaints Council.
An excerpt from the MCC’s By Laws affirms:
(a) That members of the public may often have concerns about what is presented in the print and electronic media;
(b) That it is to the benefit of the Association’s (TTPBA) members and to the public at large that there exists an avenue or mechanism to resolve these concerns quickly, efficiently, cost-effectively and fairly;
(c) That this avenue or mechanism should be by means of a self-regulatory body, which would enforce the highest ethical and professional standards, and in particular, the standards contained in the Code of Practice, but at the same time ensure the freedom and independence of the print and electronic media;
At the MCC’s website: https://mcc.org.tt/complaint/ members of the public would find more information on the Council, with access to a Complaints Form for lodging a complaint regarding a media house. All complaints must be in writing.