There’s an ongoing battle for ownership of the mega-million dollar newspaper, Newsday. The company launched by Daniel Chookolingo in 1993, is getting no media publicity because two years after its launch, the daily immediately became the fastest selling newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago outstripping the then 30-year old Trinidad Express and the mighty Guardian which was then over 75 years old. Both newspaper and their vast billion dollar media outfits have remained silent since the case was filed in the High Court in 2014.While Newsday’s up-to-date value remains shrouded, there was a valuation done a decade ago which put its worth at over $200 million dollars. Sources close to Mr Chookolingo says this is a bogus value which was given by the Steve Castagne controlled board to buy out minority shareholders to gain full control of his company.
Playbook of Rowley and Right Wing 1% Oppressors:
Create maximum bacchanal and the docile voter will stay away
PM contradicts himself: Don’t criticize me- 24th September 2022
Message to the nation on Republic Day 24th September 2022:
Quote: “I wish to remind citizens of the now pervasive dangers of misinformation and disinformation, and the forces, within our nation, who deliberately and calculatedly set about on social media to put their destructive spin on every bit of information in the public space -- all to their hopeful advantage.
A democratic Republic caters for alternative points of view, but not those that deliberately distort and undermine the legitimacy and effectiveness of its own political system. UNESCO, in a recent publication, warned of these dangers, charting misinformation and disinformation techniques from “Cleopatra to Cambridge Analytica” -- that U.K. disinformation agency, which was established here in Trinidad and Tobago some 10 years ago, and is now considered as the originator of the world-wide “crisis of misinformation.” I advise, be alert, be that good citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.
Email Gate / Rowley’s Sedition in 2013 (part of new playbook):
What is known as emailgate, are allegations by Dr Rowley made in 2013 that certain senior politicians including then then P.M., KPB, had conspired to kill a certain reporter. A fabricated email was presented by him as Opposition leader, to discredit and tarnish the sitting government. The Police service (TTPS) has since said that emailgate is fabricated and checks with internet service providers produced no substantiation of their existence.
Senior people in the PNM had publicly pinned the party’s hope on a vicious lie perpetrated by Dr Rowley, who now says he knows better and people must not state obvious falsehoods. Even then THA’s Chief Secretary, Orville London, was moved to opine that “at the end of the email investigation, only one person (Rowley or KPB) would be left standing.” After the PNM victory at the 2015 poll, Orville was promptly shipped off to London, England as the country’s High Commissioner.
It is noteworthy that since becoming PM in 2015, Dr Rowley has made regular speeches that people must not criticize officials in authority as it unpatriotic and dangerous. But, when it suited him in 2013, he made the following comments with a straight face:
“Anytime a government (UNC) resorts to blaming the opposition (PNM) for its failure to deliver on their mandate and their responsibilities to the people, it is a clear sign that they have accepted they have outlived their usefulness.”