Click to view full size

As an­oth­er State of Emer­gency (SoE) takes hold, the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has raised red flags over sev­er­al sec­tions of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions (EPR) 2026, warn­ing that the State is now polic­ing both the pub­lic’s free­dom of move­ment and ex­pres­sion un­der the guise of safe­ty.

Speak­ing dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said Sec­tion 11 of the EPR gov­ern­ing the SoE crim­i­nalis­es any pub­li­ca­tion, in­clud­ing so­cial me­dia posts, and is an at­tempt by Gov­ern­ment to erode free­dom of speech.

Sec­tion 11 of the law states, “No per­son shall en­deav­our, whether oral­ly or oth­er­wise, to in­flu­ence pub­lic opin­ion in a man­ner like­ly to be prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty; or do any act or have any ar­ti­cle in his pos­ses­sion with a view to mak­ing or fa­cil­i­tat­ing the mak­ing of any such en­deav­our.”