Port of Spain; Minister of National Security Jack Warner e-mailed a response to questions sent to him by investigative reporter Camini Marajh yesterday. However, he did not send his response to Marajh. He did in fact send it to almost all media corps and e-mailed the questions to all on his personal mailing list. The questions covered a wide range of issues including the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, the Caribbean Football Union, his son's current troubles with the United States authorities and a few others topics.
Mr. Warner attempted to kill the story about his alleged involvement linking him to an investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service in which his son Daryan Warner is said to be Cooperating with investigators.
Marajh e-mailed Mr. Warner a list of 40 questions last Wednesday in order to give him sufficient time to respond to the issues. But instead of responding privately to Marahj he sent his response to at least 57 reporters from all the daily newspapers, television stations and even political bloggers. He included in the e-mail that the investigation into allegations against him should have been published in the Sunday Express today but this did not happen.
Warner told Marajh if he responded to her questions, it would be a tantamount to "validating character assassination posing as investigative journalism" against him.
Warner was recently the target of a breaking story by Reuters news agency, where it was alleged that his son Daryan Warner was a cooperating witness into alleged corruption in international football.
He agreed that public officials should be held accountable for their actions; but felt there should be equal accountability on the part of the media and the media house represented.
He questioned who investigates the background and the agenda set out by the person doing the investigative piece, and went on to say the fact that Marajh can question him, his obligation to answer must be equally met by her own dutiful obligation and that of her newspaper to be fair and unbiased.
