Se­nior Coun­sel Mar­tin Daly says the Gov­ern­ment must pro­vide clear and co­her­ent in­for­ma­tion to the pub­lic about the ba­sis of the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE), warn­ing that trust in pub­lic of­fi­cials could be im­pact­ed.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day, Daly said an SoE im­pos­es sig­nif­i­cant lim­i­ta­tions on civ­il lib­er­ties, and there­fore de­mands a high lev­el of trans­paren­cy and re­spon­si­ble con­duct from the au­thor­i­ties.

“When a State of Emer­gency is de­clared, it re­al­ly re­quires the pub­lic to take the Gov­ern­ment at its word,” Daly said. “Trust and con­fi­dence in pub­lic of­fi­cials is gen­er­al­ly low in Trinidad and To­ba­go, so peo­ple are con­cerned to know what this is re­al­ly about.”