Journalists in Trinidad and Tobago are demanding an urgent amendment to the special operations bill 2026, passed on 24 September, which widens police powers of search and seizure and which they say could expose reporters' phones, laptops, notes and confidential sources. The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago wants clause 15 to name journalism explicitly as a protected lawful trade, while Article 19 (an international press freedom and human rights group) calls a separate clause on seizing items of "substantial value" vague, and former prime minister Stuart Young has called the bill unconstitutional. The government says the measure is needed to tackle high crime and murder rates, but the dispute matters because the Caribbean nation, which fell from 19th to 32nd in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index this year, has spent more than a year under near-constant emergency powers.