Primary document · Court of Appeal judgment

One Caribbean Media and others v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago

Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago

The Court of Appeal upheld the finding that the March 2020 police search of Express House, and the seizure of four flash drives from the office of the editor, breached the constitutional protection of press freedom. The search had sought to identify the source of a journalist's reporting on the finances of a senior police officer. Compensation of $25,000 was awarded.

Document of record · High Court judgment, TT 2021 HC 10

Judgment delivered 29 April 2026

Key extracts & findings

Holding 1

The search was unconstitutional

The majority, Justices Nolan Bereaux and Peter Rajkumar, with Justice James Aboud dissenting, upheld the ruling that the search of the newspaper's offices and the seizure of material from the editor's office breached the freedom of the press protected by section 4(k) of the Constitution.

Holding 2

The sanctity of journalistic sources

Justice Bereaux identified the sanctity of journalistic sources as the governing principle. The search had been directed at discovering who had spoken to the reporter, rather than at evidence of an offence by the newspaper.

Holding 3

What was seized, and why

Police attended the newspaper's offices in March 2020 and removed four flash drives from the office of the editor, in an effort to identify the source of reporting on the suspicious finances of a senior police officer.

Holding 4

The first-instance ruling stood for five years

The High Court had ruled the raid unconstitutional on 13 January 2021 in One Caribbean Media Group Ltd v The Attorney General, TT 2021 HC 10. The State's appeal against that ruling was not finally determined until April 2026.

Extracts are summarised from the document of record, which is linked above. Where a passage is disputed, this newsroom will publish the correction alongside the extract.