Opposition MP Rodney Charles is calling on media houses and Government ministers to immediately cease from repeating the palpable lie that he had called at the last JSC for additional taxes on foreign incomes of local artistes.
In a statement to media on Sunday, Charles said his lawyers are compiling a list of all ministers and media houses who perpetrated this egregious falsehood in some cases even after being advised, via an email on Friday last, that the statement was entirely false based on reviews of the proceedings of the JSC.
“This compilation is with a view to taking immediate legal action,” he noted.
MP Charles said he is at a loss to determine how this deliberate lie, and subsequent defamatory statement, was concocted, by whom, on what basis, for what reason, and why the media, without fact checking deliberately continues to give wings to this total and defamatory fabrication.
“In yesterday’s (Saturday) Express, for example, that media house boldly and falsely reported on page 8 that I had called at the JSC for increased taxes on incomes earned abroad by foreign artistes and presenting that assertion in a most negative light,” Charles said.
“The deliberate falsehood is repeated twice in the Sunday Guardian.”
“The entire cultural fraternity is alarmed by a false statement attributed to me that I never even remotely uttered.”
Charles said this will not be allowed to go away.
He said: “This will not go the way of emailgate, given legs by politicians and the media only to be refuted years later after it had done its job and the PNM won an election based on the lie.
This will never happen in this case. Not on my watch. Every attempt to tarnish my legacy will be dealt with frontally.”