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PPP parliamentarian condemns Moseley ban
By Gary Eleazar
A senior member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Member of Parliament, Moses Nagamootoo, yesterday publicly condemned the ban against Capitol News reporter and Vice President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Gordon Moseley.
Moseley has been banned from Office of President and from State House.
Nagamootoo made the announcement yesterday to media operatives as he was about to enter the National Assembly for its scheduled session.
According to Nagamootoo, being disrespectful was no violation of any law and he did not. “If a journalist violates the law then he/she must be penalised under the law.”
Nagamootoo added that he believes that the ban was an administrative glitch that has to be corrected.
The Member of Parliament added that most persons were not appreciative of the job that journalists do and that journalists need solidarity, not repudiation and condemnation.
“I believe that sanction of this sort is not an answer to issues of fairness and balance in the media or the relationship between state and journalists.”
He added, “We have to be fair to journalists…I am very saddened and I empathise with the victim of the transgression against journalists… Administrative measures should best be left to journalists for self regulation.”
Nagamootoo added that he believes strongly in the right of journalists to earn a living and practise their profession.
AFC support
Alliance for Change Leader, Raphael Trotman, said that to ban Moseley from “what is technically the public’s place is wrong.”
Trotman added that the move was also symptomatic of the President’s attitude of being petty.
“This is a frightening development…any action that the GPA takes the AFC will be in solidarity with.”
He noted that the fourth estate (media) was obviously under threat in Guyana and he was very worried over the move given that it means that the media cannot criticize. “What is your (media) function then if it is not to expose and to let people what is going on? Well then, we are heading towards a dictatorship.”
The AFC leader said that the move by the State to show that it is in charge is undermining its own legitimacy. “People will lose respect for the state and are not going to accord the state and its institutions the respect that it deserves.”
Trotman added that he expects President Bharrat Jagdeo to say to hell with everyone “because he has already said that he is controversial and he does not care any longer…he has to remember that he is a President of a country and his actions will have an impact not only on those he thinks he is directly affecting but all of us and internationally…the view of Guyana is that we are no longer a place where views can be heard and entertained…One shudders to think of what is coming next; it’s frightening.”
Moseley was officially informed on Monday last that he has been banned from entering the Office of the President, in New Garden Street, and State House, on Main Street.
Moseley has since retaliated that the move was a means of ‘dictating the way Capitol News should cover stories and who should cover those stories.’
On Monday, Moseley arrived at Office of the President following an invitation for the coverage of an event but was told that a directive was issued barring him from entering the premises.
He added that when he enquired why he was not allowed in, the security were apparently clueless.
The private media within the country has since taken up a position of selective coverage of state-sponsored events.
On Wednesday, the GPA issued an advisory to all media houses on the strategy that would be adopted as a means of protesting the ban.
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