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‘Irate’ President lashes out at Kaieteur News
…denies newspaper exclusive interview
President Bharrat Jagdeo
By Gary Eleazar
Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday launched another verbal attack on the Kaieteur News following a tirade at the recent Private Sector Commission dinner held at the Pegasus Hotel.
At that time the president accused this publication of fabricating stories, “every single day” as well as suggesting to the private sector that they were partly to be blamed for the bad image of the country that is being portrayed given that they advertise with this newspaper.
Yesterday, a reporter from this publication attempted to solicit an exclusive interview with the President, but was greeted with a blunt negative response.
“No, because Kaieteur News is not interested in the truth most of the times, because you will distort what I say,” President Jagdeo stated.
He questioned why the Kaieteur News would want an exclusive interview when the questions could be dealt with at his press conferences.
“Why would I want to sit one-on-one when I can do something like this (have a press conference) and have all of the media here…and you go ahead and ask me all of the questions?”
It must be noted that on several occasions the President limits the amount of questions asked at press conferences and sometimes even limits the scope of questions.
The President then accused this newspaper of misleading the public saying that, “On Lindo Creek you misled the public.”
He went on to say that, “On Lindo Creek, you said the security forces were just behind ‘Fine Man’ when they went into the Christmas Falls area…it was a lie.”
Jagdeo said that, “Two days running you were giving a ball-by-ball commentary. The men were already back in the Ituni area…we knew it, we knew it was a lie.”
The President said that, “You published a whole range of issues about Lindo Creek, accusing the security forces… got the father of the guy who was killed…Arokium…most of it, in fact all of it is being substantiated now… I can name the cases.”
Jagdeo continued by saying, “You published a bridge; you put a bridge in the newspaper… you said we built with funds recently procured…It was built ten years ago…It was a lie.”
He continued, “All of these things and you never had the decency to correct these things…you are not interested in the truth… You are not interested in the truth…you take the high moral ground and then the paper doesn’t subscribe to it itself.”
The President then waded into writers of this publication saying, “And then you have ghost writers who can malign people…but they don’t have the courage…I would say something else… to put their names.”
He continued saying, “You have some really crazy people there too…I don’t want to mention who…but you know moralizing and stealing all the time…a convicted thief…writing everyday for your paper…a convicted thief and a self-confessed man kisser and you don’t see anything wrong…everyday.”
The President reiterated that, “I said before that I will defend Kaieteur News’ right to publish…I will always defend that because it is a free country and I believe in a free media, but that doesn’t mean that I agree to all the lies that you portray there…There are good articles in the newspapers and I am sure that you have decent writers and staff among you, but there are some who are hell bent on just creating confusion.”
The President then accused this newspaper of having links to a $300M fraud that was uncovered by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
He said that, “I hope that you will investigate the GRA matter further for a particular reason, which hopefully will be made available soon, because it has links to the Kaieteur News…The GRA, the same $300M theft that we had that the GRA discovered yesterday, I hope you will ask who were the importers.”
He went on to say, “since Kaieteur News likes to do investigative reporting, ask about the first year of the fraud… who the importers were.”
He reiterated, “You want a one-on-one, I am not doing a one-on-one with you because you’ll go and lie again…. Let’s do it here…you can raise anything you wish and let the Guyanese public decide if I’m found wanting…they are the ones who judge me.”
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