A consistent attack against Kaieteur News

Jun 08, 2010 Editorial

Without a doubt, there is a concerted effort to target Kaieteur News and the effort has increased over the past few weeks. These efforts began with some hostile comments by public officials at functions and other public events. And to crown the effort, more often than not, these comments were way off target. What makes the attack even more glaring is the fact that those leveling the charges often ignore the issue at hand to focus on the fact that the newspaper appears to be critical of the mistakes the government makes.
It is not that the criticisms are new. They started with columnist Freddie Kissoon who is perhaps the harshest critic of the government. Kissoon has been writing about what he sees at the dictatorship practised by the government. He never misses an opportunity to fault the government for missed opportunities and true to form, the government becomes angry.
None other than President Bharrat Jagdeo began the assault on Kissoon, publicly calling him names and attempting to belittle the columnist. Of what relevance would Kissoon’s exploits be to any government unless he is doing something that the government finds offensive?
More recently the attacks moved beyond criticisms of Mr Kissoon and the renewed attacks coincide with reports on the Amaila Falls project. Prior to this recent bout of attacks that are more than just criticisms of the newspaper, there were threats of legal action. Some contractors who were questioned about the quality of their work and their involvement in over-priced contracts, moved to the courts seeking injunctions and substantial damages.
The legal pursuit then makes glaring headlines in the media houses owned and controlled by the government. There are no reports when these lawsuits collapse. There are no reports or analyses of the nuisance value of some of these lawsuits.
Then there are the letters and comments about every aspect of the newspaper. One Dr Randy Persaud even made bold to suggest that the newspaper was disrespectful for describing President Bharrat Jagdeo as an awardee. His criticism was that the newspaper should have spelt the word awardee with a capital letter.
We would not be surprised if we learn that there is not a quiet campaign to get people to desist from buying the newspaper. Last week, during a Cabinet outreach, we learnt that none other than the President was critical of an individual who was vending the Kaieteur News. We were told the Region Three Chairman, Julius Faerber, joined in the criticism. In fact, he took his campaign even further. He has denied granting a stall to the newspaper vendor.
But even before that, Minister Pauline Sukhai was at pains to cuss out the newspaper over her Ministry’s obvious disregard for medical facts and the haste to issue statements about something that neither the Minister nor the Ministry could pronounce on. But basking in ignorance, the Minister and her Ministry make bold to deliver barbs at the newspaper for stating medical facts.
The Minister takes her pique even further; she refuses to invite the newspaper to her news conferences at which she continues to cuss out the paper. Perhaps she recognised that she would have been challenged to justify her contention and so decided to vent her spleen before willing servants who would regurgitate whatever she served them, unchanged, uninvestigated and unquestioned.
But it must be the exposes on the contract awarded for the Amaila Falls road that is prompting most of the hostility and the attacks on the newspaper. Kaieteur News, like any newspaper worth its salt, asked pertinent questions about the project. The government was not prepared to answer these questions, choosing instead, to abuse the newspaper and divert attention from the issue of the Amaila Falls road contract.
If there is any doubt that the government has targeted the newspaper for special treatment, all one has to do is to monitor the volume of government advertisements placed with Kaieteur News; the ghost letters that appear in the state-controlled media critical of even the most accurate report in Kaieteur News about questionable government activities; and of course, the blogs that the leeches in the government use to sully names and characters.

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A consistent attack against Kaieteur News

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