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The concerns are never ignored

Jul 27, 2008 Features / Columnists

Commonsense always prevails, even in the worst of times, and the recent brouhaha between the Guyana Press Association and the President has seen commonsense coming to the fore and averting what could have been the kind of situation that no country would enjoy.

The press is crucial to the development of any country. It allows the public to understand what is happening, since it interprets views and ideas proposed by Government and Opposition alike. It also allows the Government to know what the people want, or what they say.

Therefore, when the press withdrew its services in light of an order that reporter Gordon Moseley not be allowed inside the Office of the President and State House, the Government was concerned that it was losing an ally.

Of course, there were sections of the media that would always be there to report, but the media these days are more than the state-owned enterprises where, for the greater part, self-censorship plays an important part.

The reporters in the state media are often of the view that all their reports must be complimentary of the Government and that those things that tend to be critical of the Government should not be reported.

Some of these reporters would say that there have been Government officials that actually criticised them, but a good reporter can always justify his or her decision; and so it should have been with these reporters in the face of the criticisms.

The private media, operating with no such controls, are therefore more important in the scheme of things.

They are the ones who are often caustically critical of the Government; and most times level blame for certain actions.

And, indeed, there have been clashes between the Government and the private media, sometimes to the extent that harsh words fly back and forth.

But, at the end of the day, there should be a relationship that allows both sides to exploit the strengths of each other. And this is why the Government welcomes the return to normalcy in the relations.

The Guyana Press Association, as we noted in the last column, sought a meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo to discuss a number of issues, some of which were certainly not issues that the President could have dealt with.

They ranged from what the press association called political interference in the state media to the migration of journalists. People migrate for a variety of reasons, and journalists are no different.

How, then, can one blame the Government for this? And what the press association calls political interference in the state media may merely be a case of the people with direct responsibility for the operations of the state media ensuring that the state media do what they are set up to do.

There has also been the complaint about the private media houses being unable to recruit journalists. This should not be the responsibility of the President.

If an entity cannot recruit people, then that entity is not offering competitive conditions. One cannot blame the Government for this.

Therefore, it is heartening that the press has gone back to doing what it is supposed to do. Last week, there was a walkout from the Parliament.

This week, the press stayed to report on the developments, and this is heartening. Many things have happened, and all have been reported — from the new laws to curb drunk driving to people who molest children.

The view, though, is that there should be a meeting between the press and the Administration. This meeting could help both sides understand what is expected of the other, and could stave off unnecessary conflicts.

But the press has the wherewithal to make its concerns known if there is no meeting; and, rest assured, the Administration has been known to respond to concerns.

The meeting on the tax concessions, set for Tuesday, is a response to concerns from certain quarters. There have been many questions, and this workshop will hopefully put all the concerns to rest.

The press made the concerns known, and the Government has responded. No one can accuse the Government of ignoring concerns.

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