Investigations & public interest reporting
The investigative record
Every investigative report, organised by the five areas the work returns to.
01
State power and national institutions
How public authority is created, used, reviewed and limited.
Editorial brief- State Power · InvestigationWhen the Senate tied 15–15, Wade Mark cast the vote that passed two Government BillsThe controversy is not whether the Senate President has a casting vote. He does. The question is whether that vote should be used to make a final legislative decision when the Senate itself cannot produce a majority.
- State Power · InvestigationA new balance of power: how recent Bills and emergency powers are changing rights, press freedom and public oversight in Trinidad and TobagoHow recent Bills and emergency powers are changing access to information, press freedom, policing and public oversight in Trinidad and Tobago.
- Governance · CommentaryCalling senators ‘satanic’ is not an argument. It is an attack on the constitutional check they represent.Kamla Persad-Bissessar asked the United Nations to trust independent institutions abroad, then denounced independent judgment at home. The contradiction is larger than one ugly phrase.
- Public Money · InvestigationThe watchdog may still investigate. The Procurement Bill would stop it from biting.Trinidad and Tobago’s Procurement Bill reaches far beyond faster paperwork: it widens exemptions, restricts the regulator’s remedies and narrows the time suppliers have to challenge an award.
- Governance · AnalysisTrinidad and Tobago is giving the State more power. Trust is the harder question.Two Bills, considered within days of each other, would expand coercive authority and loosen constraints on public spending. The common question is who can stop the State when something goes wrong.
- National SecurityThe permit economy: what a closed area does to a blockSeven policing districts. A permit to enter or leave your own street. A $50,000 fine for getting it wrong. The Special Operations Bill’s heaviest costs fall on vendors, shift workers and anyone who talks to a reporter.
- Caribbean AffairsExtrajudicial at sea: 234 dead, and a region that will not say the wordA United Nations rapporteur has called the Caribbean boat strikes serial extrajudicial killings. Two Saint Lucians are dead. Trinidad and Tobago declines to characterise any of it.
- JusticeHadeeds remain in prison after late-night Court of Appeal stayThe court sat late and stayed its own order for immediate release to house arrest, pending a Privy Council ruling. Justice reviewed, or justice delayed?
- InternationalThe World Court finds the occupation unlawfulAn ICJ advisory opinion says Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and places obligations on every state.JUL. 20, 2024
- InternationalThe ICJ orders Israel to prevent genocidal acts in GazaThe World Court found South Africa's claims plausible enough to order provisional measures. It did not rule on whether genocide is taking place.JAN. 27, 2024
- Press FreedomA journalist disappeared in Thailand and surfaced in a Vietnamese prisonThe official accounts never closed the gap between Truong Duy Nhat's disappearance in Bangkok and his reappearance in Vietnamese custody.AUG. 28, 2020
- Press FreedomNigeria detained a publisher before the protest beganThe UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Omoyele Sowore's arrest violated protections for expression, assembly and a fair trial.MAY 1, 2020
02
Public money and procurement
Contracts, spending, audit findings and the rules that protect public funds.
Editorial brief- Public Money · Visual AnalysisBudget 2027: what’s going up?Digital subscriptions, high-use electricity bills and selected imports face new charges. Business taxes and compliance fees add another layer. Follow the measures, the rates and their proposed start dates.OCT. 14, 2026
- Public Money · Investigative Economic AnalysisBehind Budget 2027: a contracting economy and the geography of public moneyThe Government’s own documents forecast weaker output, record rising unemployment and expose a sharper concentration of municipal capital funding in 2027. The figures test the promise of recovery against the money allocated and the spending delivered.
- Public Money · InvestigationThe watchdog may still investigate. The Procurement Bill would stop it from biting.Trinidad and Tobago’s Procurement Bill reaches far beyond faster paperwork: it widens exemptions, restricts the regulator’s remedies and narrows the time suppliers have to challenge an award.
- Governance · AnalysisTrinidad and Tobago is giving the State more power. Trust is the harder question.Two Bills, considered within days of each other, would expand coercive authority and loosen constraints on public spending. The common question is who can stop the State when something goes wrong.
- Public FinanceTwelve ambulances, $17 million, and a regulator still investigatingA $5.5 million tender for Isuzu ambulances became a $17 million fleet of Force Traveller vans, none of them in service by last November. The Procurement Regulator opened an investigation ten months ago. It has not reported.
- Public FinanceThe $16 billion year: what the Procurement Regulator could not countPublic bodies reported $16.0 billion in contracts in a single year. Fewer than two in three filed the returns the law requires. The real number is unknown, and that is the finding.
- Public FinanceDragon: the country's biggest energy bet, and nobody will publish the termsA replacement licence was announced in October 2025. A year later the revenue split is still unpublished, the drilling tender is out, and the legal basis rests on a government installed after a foreign capture.
- Caribbean AffairsSmall states at the back of the vaccine queueThe first Covax doses reached Trinidad and Tobago more than three months after mass vaccination began in Britain. Barbados sent doses of its own before then.APR. 2, 2021
03
Governance and political accountability
Decisions taken in public office and the records behind them.
Editorial brief- Governance · Cartographic InvestigationTrinidad’s municipal map is about to be redrawnThe proposed move from 14 corporations to 17 would redistribute administration, representation and public resources across the island. The map shows where the balance changes.OCT. 5, 2026
- Foreign Affairs · Strategic AnalysisThe plan to make Trinidad and Tobago Israel's primary Caribbean partner — and Port of Spain a Jewish centreA Security Council seat creates the opening. Geography, gas, diplomatic investment and a proposed Jewish institutional base could make the relationship last well beyond 2028.OCT. 5, 2026
- Governance · ExplainerBeyond the drinking age: what the 2026 alcohol, cannabis, gambling and tobacco Bill really changesThe debate has focused on 21 and 25. The Bill goes further: new $50,000 offences for younger people, liability for children over ten, fixed-penalty and rehabilitation systems, and prison terms of up to 30 years for sellers and operators.
- Foreign Affairs · InvestigationT&T stayed for Netanyahu's UN speech as ties with Israel grew more activeThere is no official tally of the UN walkout. Dozens of delegates left, more than 100 were reported to have departed, and Trinidad and Tobago stayed amid a marked rise in bilateral contact with Israel.
- Governance · CommentaryCalling senators ‘satanic’ is not an argument. It is an attack on the constitutional check they represent.Kamla Persad-Bissessar asked the United Nations to trust independent institutions abroad, then denounced independent judgment at home. The contradiction is larger than one ugly phrase.
- Public Money · InvestigationThe watchdog may still investigate. The Procurement Bill would stop it from biting.Trinidad and Tobago’s Procurement Bill reaches far beyond faster paperwork: it widens exemptions, restricts the regulator’s remedies and narrows the time suppliers have to challenge an award.
- Governance · AnalysisTrinidad and Tobago is giving the State more power. Trust is the harder question.Two Bills, considered within days of each other, would expand coercive authority and loosen constraints on public spending. The common question is who can stop the State when something goes wrong.
- GovernmentGovernment source: “The foundations are about to be shaken”A Government source describes an intelligence-led campaign against organised crime and the financial and business interests believed to support it.
- GovernanceFrom accounting error to political scandal: the $2.6 billion controversy explainedNo money was stolen, and the Privy Council case was never about missing funds. The story is how a reporting error was detected, corrected and handled, and what the courts have and have not decided.
- Caribbean AffairsTrinidad and Tobago recognises the State of PalestinePort of Spain follows Barbados and Jamaica within a fortnight. The region's position has shifted fast.MAY 3, 2024
- GovernanceSafe zones: public policy set by press conferenceRestaurants, bars and gyms can reopen only to vaccinated customers. The rules arrived faster than the regulations behind them.OCT. 12, 2021
- GovernanceComing home by exemption: a system with no published rulesStranded nationals must apply to the Minister of National Security to return. The criteria for approval have not been made public.JUL. 14, 2020
- GovernanceBorders close at midnight, and nationals abroad are told to waitTrinidad and Tobago shut its borders to everyone, citizens included. No published procedure yet exists for those left outside.MAR. 22, 2020
04
Policing, security and civil liberties
Security powers weighed against due process and the people they affect.
Editorial brief- Governance · AnalysisTrinidad and Tobago is giving the State more power. Trust is the harder question.Two Bills, considered within days of each other, would expand coercive authority and loosen constraints on public spending. The common question is who can stop the State when something goes wrong.
- National SecurityThe permit economy: what a closed area does to a blockSeven policing districts. A permit to enter or leave your own street. A $50,000 fine for getting it wrong. The Special Operations Bill’s heaviest costs fall on vendors, shift workers and anyone who talks to a reporter.
- Caribbean AffairsExtrajudicial at sea: 234 dead, and a region that will not say the wordA United Nations rapporteur has called the Caribbean boat strikes serial extrajudicial killings. Two Saint Lucians are dead. Trinidad and Tobago declines to characterise any of it.
- National SecuritySpecial Operations Bill: Kamla says UNC areas will get “hard policing”The Prime Minister will authorise special operations in 26 UNC-held constituencies, 70 local government districts and two TPP-held seats. What it means for your home, business and freedom.
- InternationalHuman rights are not defended selectivelyGaza, Sudan, Congo, the Uyghurs, the Rohingya and Armenia: the same principles apply to each of them, whether or not it is convenient.SEP. 24, 2025
- InternationalGaza: the General Assembly calls for a truceThe UN General Assembly voted 120 to 14 for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. For small states, the rules at stake are the same rules that protect them.OCT. 28, 2023
- Press FreedomShireen Abu Akleh: the evidence pointed to the soldiers' positionThe UN Human Rights Office examined the scene, recordings and witnesses. It found the shots that killed the Al Jazeera correspondent came from Israeli forces.JUN. 24, 2022
- National SecurityA public health emergency, enforced as a security oneThe state of emergency declared on 15 May puts a 9pm curfew in place across Trinidad and Tobago. How the police use their powers under it needs watching.MAY 16, 2021
- Press FreedomA journalist disappeared in Thailand and surfaced in a Vietnamese prisonThe official accounts never closed the gap between Truong Duy Nhat's disappearance in Bangkok and his reappearance in Vietnamese custody.AUG. 28, 2020
- Press FreedomNigeria detained a publisher before the protest beganThe UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Omoyele Sowore's arrest violated protections for expression, assembly and a fair trial.MAY 1, 2020
05
Press freedom and source protection
The conditions in which journalists gather information and protect sources.
Editorial brief- Press FreedomWhat the new Special Operations Bill could mean for press freedomClause 15 allows warrantless searches and the seizure of articles and documents, with no express protection for confidential journalistic sources or material.
- Press FreedomThe courts took six years to protect a source. The Bill would take the protection back.In April the Court of Appeal held the police search of a newsroom unconstitutional. Five months later Parliament is asked to authorise searches with no warrant at all.
- InternationalGaza's dead journalists, and the evidence war leaves behindEach name requires verification. Each strike requires investigation. The unprecedented toll cannot be reduced to a number or converted automatically into a finding of intent.JAN. 8, 2024
- Press FreedomHaiti's reporters were killed, displaced and left without a StateThe Inter-American press-freedom rapporteur recorded three journalists killed in seven weeks and about twelve forced from Carrefour-Feuilles.OCT. 3, 2023
- Press FreedomThe spyware in a Dominican journalist's phoneForensic analysis found Pegasus infections on Nuria Piera's device. It did not establish who ordered the surveillance.JUN. 1, 2023
- Press FreedomShireen Abu Akleh: the evidence pointed to the soldiers' positionThe UN Human Rights Office examined the scene, recordings and witnesses. It found the shots that killed the Al Jazeera correspondent came from Israeli forces.JUN. 24, 2022
- Press FreedomEighty-four deadlines, and no answer for two murdered journalistsTen years after Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi were killed at home in Dhaka, UN experts described a pervasive culture of impunity.FEB. 11, 2022
- Press FreedomHopewell Chin'ono: arrest after reporting the contractsZimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono reported alleged Covid-19 procurement corruption, then spent six weeks in custody on an incitement charge.SEP. 2, 2020
- Press FreedomA journalist disappeared in Thailand and surfaced in a Vietnamese prisonThe official accounts never closed the gap between Truong Duy Nhat's disappearance in Bangkok and his reappearance in Vietnamese custody.AUG. 28, 2020
- Press FreedomMaria Ressa and the danger of making an old article newly criminalA Philippine court treated a correction to a 2012 article as republication after the cybercrime law took effect. The result extended criminal exposure backward in time.JUN. 15, 2020
- Press FreedomNigeria detained a publisher before the protest beganThe UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Omoyele Sowore's arrest violated protections for expression, assembly and a fair trial.MAY 1, 2020
- Press FreedomKhashoggi: when a consulate became the scene of a killingA United Nations inquiry found Jamal Khashoggi's death was a deliberate extrajudicial execution for which Saudi Arabia was responsible. Accountability stopped short of the officials the inquiry said should be investigated.JUN. 19, 2019