AGENTS of the Progressive Liberal Party have sought to use harassment and intimidation to influence The Tribune’s coverage of the claims against Deputy House Speaker Dion Smith.

Soon after it came to light that Mr Smith had been accused of a “tirade” in which he used racial slurs and put the tenants of his building in fear for their safety, party operatives began calling The Tribune in an attempt to have the story dropped.

The Tribune was asked to “ease up” on Mr Smith and “smoke the peace pipe with the PLP”.

Then another PLP agent began harassing a Tribune journalist in a public place over the issue, declaring loudly that the reporter was “being used” and should not write any further stories about Mr Smith.

Following this, one reporter said, PLP “cronies” fabricated a claim that the story – which was taken from documents filed in the Supreme Court – was only written because of a personal issue between himself and Mr Smith.

“They are now attempting to invent a ‘back story’ to The Tribune’s coverage to make it appear as if there is some personal vendetta between myself and Mr Smith, to explain why the story appeared in the paper in the first place,” said the reporter, who has in fact never met the Deputy Speaker before the allegations arose.

“This false story is now being fed to the public by their network of ‘whisperers’ to discredit The Tribune and thus save Mr Smith some time,” the reporter said.

However, political observers believe Mr Smith may already be on borrowed time, as he made a mistake in publicly declaring he believes he has the support of the Prime Minister.

“This has backfired,” one said. “The ball is now squarely in the hands of Mr Christie, who must now come forward and say whether or not he is backing this man.

“The public is anxiously waiting to see if this will be a repeat of Sidney Stubbs, Keod Smith, Kenyatta Gibson, Shane Gibson et, cetera.

“Is this the same Christie of 2002- 2007 or has he actually learned his lesson?”

• See today’s INSIGHT