Re­porters With­out Bor­ders (RSF), a glob­al press free­dom or­gan­i­sa­tion, is warn­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­de­pen­dent me­dia sec­tor is fac­ing grow­ing fi­nan­cial pres­sure, as gov­ern­ment ad­ver­tis­ing re­mains sus­pend­ed.

RSF said the freeze on ad­ver­tis­ing by Min­istries and State en­ter­pris­es, an­nounced by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in May 2025 as part of a cost-cut­ting ex­er­cise, is plac­ing fur­ther strain on news or­gan­i­sa­tions.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion’s as­sess­ment was based in part on in­ter­views with Trinida­di­an jour­nal­ists and mem­bers of me­dia as­so­ci­a­tions, who raised con­cerns about the im­pact of shrink­ing news­room re­sources on in­ves­tiga­tive re­port­ing and me­dia ac­count­abil­i­ty.