KAIETEUR NEWS STANDS TALL

Nov 04, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Just before Kaieteur News published that graphic photograph of police torture, there were signs that the newspaper was once again coming under attack. Quite a few nasty commentaries were being written about this newspaper.
Kaieteur News has grown immune to these things. The authorities can do what they want; they can ration ads and give generously to their friends, it still will not stop this newspaper. For the first ten years this newspaper was denied State ads even though it had established itself during that period as the leading newspaper with a readership wider than any other daily newspaper.
It was denied government ads for ten years and it still survived. No smear campaign is going to distract Kaieteur News from doing its job.
This newspaper was often criticized for the graphic images it posted on its front pages, especially when these related to crime. We were accused of being insensitive. However, never were any photographs published without long and studied discussions with the editors and the staff, and often a decision to publish graphic photographs was intended, as they were last Saturday, to drive home the seriousness of the situation.
Had we not published that photograph, persons would never have understood the agony and ordeal that the suspect went through; the full extent of brutishness of the torture could not have been communicated with in words.
It has never been our intention to leave our readers in shock and awe, just to provide them with reality checks, lest they assume that things are being exaggerated. It is therefore pleasing to note that many persons have commended this newspaper for its publication of the torture victim. But this service is what we have been providing the Guyanese people for years and for which we have paid a high price.
Never let it be forgotten that during the crime wave, our printing department was torched. Even more tragically in 2006, gunmen stormed into the same building and executed five of our staff members. We had problems finding people who were willing to go back and work in Eccles and thus we had to rebuild our printing section right next to our official offices.
Let it not be forgotten also that we have absorbed all manner of unfair criticisms from the authorities, including a reprimand to the private sector for advertising in this newspaper, and a denunciation that “every single day” we fabricate stories.
This week, we have been receiving nothing but praise and therefore it is only fitting that we acknowledge all those who have been calling to say nice things about Kaieteur News. Many of the callers have remembered the effort that we have made over the years to bring the news to them before anyone else, how often we stayed up late because we could not deny our readership a breaking story; how our reporters at great risk went into certain dangerous areas to cover stories; how we were brave to reveal things that others were cautious to report, including controversial government contracts.
Kaieteur News is proud of its record. And this week, in particular, many persons have endorsed the view that had it not been for this newspaper a great many things would have been swept under the carpet. Certainly had we not broken that story of the teenager tortured, the kid would have probably not have been taken to hospital.
People recognize our contribution and they have been calling to express their support. We are moved by the outpouring of support.
Even senior government officials have been calling. One such official called and congratulated Kaieteur News. He said in clear and emphatic terms that this newspaper deserves an award for the work that it has done, under challenging conditions, over the past ten years.
He commended Kaieteur News for the impact that it has made after only such a relatively short period in the newspaper business. We know that this sentiment is shared by most Guyanese. Kaieteur News has been a success story.
We do not share a vision of being a value-free newspaper, one unbridled by ideology. Our philosophy is simple: to bring the news to the people as accurately and swiftly as we can. Our central concern is not the building of democracy through institutions because we know that the very institutions that are often constructed to defend democracy are vulnerable to subversion and perversion of vested interests. Our central concern is with the ordinary citizen and we aim to provide them with the news to the best of our ability and in so doing to help make a difference in society.

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KAIETEUR NEWS STANDS TALL

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