PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) has warned broadcasters to comply with all the conditions set out in their concessions after a radio station last month broadcasted an interview with an inmate at the island’s Golden Grove Prison.

In a statement, TATT said it had conducted an investigation of the Slam Roadblock show broadcast on Guardian Media Limited’s (GML) Slam 100.5 FM on December 1, last year for “inappropriate content and possible breach of its concessions.

“Upon review of the programme, TATT found that the hosts of the show facilitated and encouraged an interview with a purported inmate of the Maximum Security prison,” the regulator said, adding that the inmate was “permitted to make statements…that would have disturbed the general public, particularly at a time when several prison officers lost their lives reportedly at the hands of criminal elements”.

TATT said that it also found that the radio station “ought to have known that inmates are not allowed access to mobile phones and that the use of the mobile phone by the inmate to communicate with the station would have been unauthorised and contrary to the law”.

TATT said that it “found that the station did not adhere to the standards of taste and decency expected of a national broadcaster as the station exercised poor judgement in permitting an inmate access to the public airwaves without due regard to the concerns of the public”.

 “A warning was issued to the station on the condition that the station issued a suitable apology and that the station undertakes exercises to caution and outline social responsibility in the conduct of interviews in the future,” the TATT continued.

The organisation said the station issued an apology on January 20. It reports the station as saying “it was not the intention of our hosts or the management of Slam 100.5 to encourage, incite or permit illegal conduct by anyone, including anybody purporting to call as an inmate of a prison.”

TATT said it was using this occasion to remind broadcasters of the conditions governing the licences and to comply with “all related regulatory requirements and laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

“It must be noted that the TATT will continue to be vigilant and act as required on breaches of concessions and the Telecommunications Act by providers of telecommunications and broadcasting services in Trinidad and Tobago.”