Latest update January 3rd, 2025 4:30 AM
May 20, 2008 Letters
Dear Editor,
My attention has been directed to reports and letters in the press and to reports on the television concerning the interdiction from duty of the learned Chief Magistrate, Ms Juliet Holder-Allen, consequent upon reports of certain allegations made against her.
She allegedly made statements to the newspapers and television stations concerning her present position – interdiction — which the agencies carried extensively; and the press, goaded by the apparent luscious reports, are publishing letters from readers who make some strong statements based on those reports.
I do not seek to criticise anyone, but based on reports generally published concerning local affairs and situations, I form an impression that we do not have journalists, but cub news reporters.
The report from the learned magistrate will make headlines in any part of the world, and the press and TV stations owe a solemn duty to, at the minimum, seek a comment from the persons whose names were gratuitously and vulgarly banded about in the report.
If that had been done, the public would have been aware that the learned magistrate was not frank with the disclosures she made.
In the first place, she did not disclose the names of all the members of the Commission before whom her matter went, and excluded one of the names, which resulted in the perception that racial considerations were at play. Mrs Chandra Jagnandan is not a member of the Judicial Service Commission, but the Secretary thereof, and her duties include dispatching letters on behalf of the Commission.
And secondly, and more importantly, Mrs. Holder-Allen did not lay bare the fact that the delay in the determination of the issue of her interdiction rests solely on the action being pursued by her and her legal representatives.
When an investigation was to have been held years ago, she approached the High Court to prevent that happening. The matter went to a hearing and the High Court ruled. She has since appealed the ruling of the learned Trial Judge.
She is a lawyer and ought to know that until such time as the matter is finally adjudicated upon by the courts, the status quo remains.
I hope you publish this letter fully in order that those to whom this matter is so important may become duly aware of the facts.
Prem Persaud
Jan 03, 2025
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