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Racist article sparks protest in front of Chronicle newspapers
A group of political figures and social activists yesterday assembled outside the offices of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited, publishers of the Guyana and Sunday Chronicle, to protest an editorial which it described as “another attempt to whip up racial sentiments in the country”.
The group included Freddie Kissoon, Kaieteur news columnist, social activist; Mark Benschop, Lincoln Lewis; general secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress and Gerhard Ramsaroop, Michelle Ramsaroop and Fitz Ralph Hubert, members of the AFC.
The demonstrators sported placards that read Stop racial politics now, Stop the racism, Chronicle, and Chronicle is PPP mouthpiece stop it now.
Kissoon said that the contents of the editorial were intended to create racial division. He said that Government is weakening and its only survival mechanism is racial division.
The article which is dated July 3, 2010 accused the opposition of socializing black youths to think that Indians robbed them to get rich and so automatically they feel that they have to wrest by force even murder anything Indians have.
According to the article hatred of Indians is ingrained in the opposition’s psyche; “many Indians who grew up in the arms of black people in rural communities have today become fearful anytime a black youth gets close to them.”
Social Activist Mark Benschop said that he is outraged over the article. He said that three options should be given to the publication since taxpayers dollars are being used to push racism and to divide Africans and Indians in this country; it is time to revisit the amount of money put into the Chronicle.
Benschop said that the newspaper and the government should publicly apologize, be boycotted or shut down altogether. According to Benschop “the company is not doing Guyana any good at all. Instead it is pushing a racist agenda.”
Gerhard Ramsaroop a representative of the AFC said that there is a need for state media reform to have a balanced and fair coverage for all Guyanese citizens.
Ramsaroop said that he is not for the entity to close down altogether since it will affect the employment rate but that he is endorsing the call for the publication to issue an apology to Afro -Guyanese and to the Guyanese public.
He added that the government has used the Chronicle to malign persons in the opposition through “gutter” journalism in the wake of its destruction through corruption and scandal.
The group is of the view that the government repeatedly used the Chronicle to peddle racial accusations against black youths which will result in unnecessary conflict.
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