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KN journalists turned away from OP

Mar 24, 2009 News

Kaieteur News Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris and reporter, Fareeza Haniff, were yesterday turned away from the Office of the President in Shiv. Chanderpaul Dr. because they were not in possession of their media badges issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA).
Mr. Harris and Ms. Haniff were at the Office of the President to attend the weekly press conference hosted by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon.
However, the security officials at the Office of the President informed the journalists that they were instructed by Press Liaison to the President, Kwame McCoy, that no journalist could gain entry without a GINA-issued media pass.
During a discussion between Mr. Harris and Mr. McCoy, the latter said that on Thursday he made his position clear that the journalists cannot sit in at the press conference.
When asked to comment on the issue, Mr. Harris said that GINA should not even be the entity to issue media passes to reporters, as this should be the work of the Guyana Press Association (GPA).
When contacted, President of the GPA, Denis Chabrol told Kaieteur News that for quite some time now the press association has been pleading with media workers to submit their photographs to the GPA so that they can commence accreditation, but according to Mr. Chabrol, until now, journalists have not done so as yet.
Mr. Chabrol also noted that GINA media passes have lost all credibility since they are in the possession of even receptionists, drivers, members of the security forces and intelligence arms.
According to Chabrol, this should not be the case, as only journalists should be in possession of media badges.
He explained that when the GPA had expressed its concerns over this situation via way of letter to GINA, head of the information agency, Neaz Subhan, had said that the entity will continue to issue media passes to whomever it wishes.
The GPA president noted that the officials at the Office of the President are very familiar with Mr. Harris and Ms. Haniff and they cannot claim that the journalists are not media workers.
This rule of submitting a media badge before attending a press conference at the Office of the President has never been in place before and Mr. Chabrol also finds it very worrying that members of the media were not informed of it up until they turned up at the Office of the President last week.

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