On Friday September 13th the Minister of Finance led a debate on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Global Forum): Bill, 2024 that involved both Government and Opposition. On Saturday September 14th and Sunday September 15th, the Trinidad Newsday and Trinidad Express carried coverage of the debate and astonishingly reported the Opposition’s false allegations in the debate in full, without reporting the comprehensive rebuttals made by the Government.

In five stories entitled “Saddam: Minister would be privy to taxpayers info”, “Saddam chides Imbert over new tax law”, “Kamla hits Government for ‘disrespect’ over Blacklist Bill”, “Penalty now one-time fine of $10,000 and “Imbert: Bill will get Trinidad and Tobago off of EU Blacklist” , two veteran journalists, in the Newsday and the Express, running counter to good journalistic practices of fairness and balance, carried the contributions from MPs Hosein and Persad Bissessar respectively and only published the technical and explanatory clause by clause introduction to the debate by the Minister of Finance, but did not publish the rebuttals by the Minister of Finance and other government Ministers in the debate to the misinformation and falsehoods uttered and perpetuated by the Opposition.