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C’bean media workers blast Moseley ban… ‘Sign of a crumbling democracy’
Caribbean media workers have described the move to ban Capitol News journalist, Gordon Moseley, from covering events at Office of the President and State House as the sign of a ‘crumbling democracy’ and ‘undemocratic’.
Journalist, Clare Forrester, from Jamaica, yesterday said that she never thought that it is possible that a member of the 4th estate in a country would be prevented from covering a public function in the absence of a criminal charge against that person.
“I am assuming that the President’s Office is public property and that Mr. Moseley’s job is to represent the interest of the public, a fundamental aspect of democracy. When a reporter is prevented from so doing that is the surest sign of a crumbling democracy,” Forrester commented.
Responding to the Guyana Press Association’s statement on the issue on Monday, St. Lucia’s journalist, Frank Girard, said that the ban imposed on Moseley from entering the Presidential domain is ‘undemocratic’ and an ‘antiquated’ move.
“In this day and age, when information has become a global phenomenon, there is absolutely no need to hinder journalists from performing their democratic right to inform, educate and enlighten the people, who are themselves the power brokers within the democratic systems of the Caribbean.”
President Bharrat Jagdeo, Girard said, has seemingly become ‘afraid of his very own shadow’. “The continued devaluation of the Guyanese dollar should be Bharrat Jagdeo’s major concern as countries try to cope with World Trade Organization rulings such as trade liberalization within the free market concept,” the journalist opined.
Meanwhile, the executive of the GPA yesterday met in an emergency session to discuss the banning of Moseley.
In a statement issued yesterday, GPA stated that taking note of President Jagdeo’s initial responses to its enquiries about the banning of the journalist, followed by the formal notification of the ban, the GPA is ‘now more than just disturbed but extremely concerned and wishes to point out that this move is worthy of the strongest condemnation’.
The Press Association is calling on the President, the Administration of Office of the President and his information functionaries to justify what was ‘disparaging and disrespectful’ in Moseley’s letter to the press on June 28.
In the absence of an ‘unambiguous’ and ‘justifiable’ explanation based on credible evidence, the GPA noted that it sees no immediate reason for an apology.
“The GPA can only conclude that Mr. Moseley’s letter was used as a weapon to punish him, not for its own content, but for the content of his report on President Jagdeo’s meeting with Guyanese in Antigua.”
The GPA’s executive has decided to call on all members of the media to support whatever action it deems fit.
“These actions shall be in response to this latest media-violation and infringement on the right of a citizen, more so a journalist, to exercise his constitutionally enshrined right to Freedom of Expression and at the same time inhibit his function as a journalist,” the GPA statement added.
The ban, the Association stressed, clearly tramples on the right of the public to access a messenger widely considered as a credible, fair and fearless intermediary between ordinary Guyanese and decision-makers.
“Let’s join hands in this battle by taking collective action in support of not only our colleague but a principled and just cause,” the GPA said yesterday.
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