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I am unsure of my crime against Kaieteur News
Dear Editor,
Some weeks ago columnist Freddie Kissoon, complained that Kaieteur News has not been carrying letters by Malcolm Harripaul and asked for an explanation.
What Freddie may not know is that the newspaper with which he is associated has refused to publish my last three letters. Attempts by me to ascertain the reasons behind my ban have gone unanswered by the editor.
Let me say that I respect the right of newspapers to decide what not to publish. I also recognize that they do not owe explanations for their actions to any individual.
Further, in a season of biased media policing by the government, I appreciate that the media have to be very careful.
But in an environment where the current political administration has not been fair to the non-state media, the latter should be careful not to be seen to discriminatory.
My letters in question, which were carried in other sections of the press, dealt with the African Guyanese case for power-sharing.
While refusing to carry them, Kaieteur News has published several letters and columns responding to them. All of these have been severely critical of me; many of the writers took the opportunity to label me, among other things, a racist, without even a caution from the editor in the form of an Editor’s Note.
Mr. Ravi Dev has correctly asked questions of me and drawn conclusions from my writings in his weekly Kaieteur News column. Yet Kaieteur News has denied me the right of reply in its pages.
Being banned from newspapers is not new to me. The Guyana Chronicle, except for an article on Walter Rodney in June 2005, has banned my letters since 1997. But that newspaper regularly publishes all kinds of libel against me. Eusi Kwayana and I some years ago had to move to the court to challenge one such libel—that matter is still before the court. One wonders if Kaieteur News has followed the Chronicle’s example. I know what my crime against those who control the Chronicle is. But I am unsure of my crime against Kaieteur.
On another note, I wish to make a small observation. It is commonplace for writers in Guyana’s newspapers, particularly letter writers, to glaringly distort other people’s views, include questionable “facts” and repeat racial and other stereotypes in their contributions.
Surprisingly, most of these missives, even the more obvious ones, go unchallenged by the editors.
That’s why I was very surprised when I saw an Editor’s Note under a letter written by Mr. Ravi Dev in Kaieteur News (June 15, 2011). I wish to congratulate the editor for this intervention—not for its truth, which is debatable, but for not allowing Dev’s narrative to be the only truth. However, I wish the editor would be more vigilant in this regard.
David Hinds
Editor’s note: Sometimes, some letters get overtaken by time because we try to publish every letter we get once it is not libelous and does not incite. We do publish Mr Hinds’s letters and if we fail to on a few occasions it is because there are others that also beg for publication.
In several instances we fail to publish letters that are too long and the editing of which could prompt the writer to take offence. Some of Mr Hinds’s letters are informative but copious.
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