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Greene bans Commanders from speaking to media

Jun 08, 2011 News

– orders them to shut their mouths with immediate effect

Police Commissioner Henry Greene has reversed a decision by his predecessor Winston Felix, banning all his Divisional Commanders from speaking to the media.
The ban was issued via text message to all Divisional Commanders around midday yesterday.
No reason was given for the ban, but it is believed that it has to do with an article carried in last Sunday’s edition of this newspaper under the headline “Four in line to succeed Greene”.
The message which was sent from the Commissioner’s cellular phone read, “I am directing that the long outstanding order to the effect that only the COP, ACLE and the Traffic Chief speak to the media. All other Commanders are to shut their mouths with immediate effect.”
No mention was made of the police Public Relations Officer, who had long been permitted to interact with the media.
Former Commissioner Felix had lifted the gag order on his commanders following negotiations with the Guyana Press Association (GPA) during the 2002-2006 crime wave.
Longstanding member of the GPA, Kaieteur News Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris, in an invited comment noted that prior to Felix lifting the gag order, the police were mum on many things and quite often reporters had to fill in the blanks.
“More often than not the reporters were wrong, much to the annoyance of the police,” Harris explained.
According to Harris, the GPA managed to convince the then commissioner that timely information was important, and immediately Felix permitted his commanders to speak to the media.
The result was closer collaboration between the Guyana Police Force and the media.
“On many occasions members of the media identified criminals killed in the streets, for the police,” Harris said.
The new ban did not prohibit some commanders from speaking to the media, confirming the ban; however, some of them were quite dismissive.
“We are banned from speaking to the press, you have to call the Commissioner,” one Commander told this newspaper when contacted for a comment on an issue in his Division.

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