1990 - Correction to the record
16/08/10 19:23 Filed in: Errata
In response to a claim of inaccuracies in
Dennis McComie's book 1990 - The personal account
of a journalist under siege, journalist Wesley
Gibbings has proposed this correction to the
information recorded by author McComie on page 53
of the book.
The author has been invited to comment on these proposed changes and his comments will be included in this post when they are received.
"August 8, 2010
Our Head of News and Current Affairs, Wesley Gibbings, was at the Red House covering the sitting of the House of Representatives that evening. With him were fellow journalists Deborah John of the Express, Linda Hutchinson of the Bomb and George Harvey of the Trinidad Guardian. They were all caught up in the deadly attack and Wesley barely made it out of the building even as the insurgents moved to consolidate their control.
Approaching attackers from the vicinity of the NBS building made it impossible for him to proceed south of the Red House in the direction of the station and he made a dash to the Express building on Independence Square where he announced that parliament was under attack and that Deborah was most likely still inside the building.
The following day, Wesley reported for duty at NBS and worked with the team there, headed by Programme Manager Hamilton Clement, to regularise the flow of news and information about the coup. He left the station just once during the crisis and was there when the announcement of the end of the standoff was made.
During the attack, Wesley had left behind the station’s old but sturdy Marantaz tape recorder which was being monitored by Mervyn Teague of the Radio Unit of the Information Division. Teague was killed in the attack.
He also only recovered his white Nissan Sunny, which he had parked in the Red House compound, days after the end of the standoff."
The author has been invited to comment on these proposed changes and his comments will be included in this post when they are received.
"August 8, 2010
Our Head of News and Current Affairs, Wesley Gibbings, was at the Red House covering the sitting of the House of Representatives that evening. With him were fellow journalists Deborah John of the Express, Linda Hutchinson of the Bomb and George Harvey of the Trinidad Guardian. They were all caught up in the deadly attack and Wesley barely made it out of the building even as the insurgents moved to consolidate their control.
Approaching attackers from the vicinity of the NBS building made it impossible for him to proceed south of the Red House in the direction of the station and he made a dash to the Express building on Independence Square where he announced that parliament was under attack and that Deborah was most likely still inside the building.
The following day, Wesley reported for duty at NBS and worked with the team there, headed by Programme Manager Hamilton Clement, to regularise the flow of news and information about the coup. He left the station just once during the crisis and was there when the announcement of the end of the standoff was made.
During the attack, Wesley had left behind the station’s old but sturdy Marantaz tape recorder which was being monitored by Mervyn Teague of the Radio Unit of the Information Division. Teague was killed in the attack.
He also only recovered his white Nissan Sunny, which he had parked in the Red House compound, days after the end of the standoff."