Latest update January 19th, 2025 12:01 AM
Chronicle board to discuss action over racist editorial
– AFC wants Ramotar to speak out
The Parliamentary opposition party, Alliance For Change, has called for President Donald Ramotar to speak out on the “racist” July 2 Chronicle editorial.
“The AFC demands a full retraction of the editorial by the Chronicle and an apology to all Guyanese, and in particular, to African-Guyanese. Also, in his capacity as Minister of Information, we demand a statement on the issue from President Ramotar,” the AFC stated yesterday.
Robert Corbin
The editorial, which suggested that young African Guyanese are “socialized” by the opposition to rob and murder Indo-Guyanese, has sparked outrage and generated protests and public burning of the newspaper.
GNNL Board Chairman Keith Burrowes had issued an apology over the editorial and had hinted at disciplinary action against the writer, the editor on duty and others who were involved.
The writer of the editorial was Parvatti-Persaud Edwards, a freelance writer. The Guyana Chronicle has been unable to contact her since the protests. She has decided to sever ties with the newspaper, according to a conversation she has had with some people.
Mr Raschid Osman, the editor at the time, is on leave, and would be dealt with when he returns to work.
Burrowes said, recently, that the Chronicle has a code of ethics and this was not adhered to. He said a copy of the code has been circulated to staff again.
Burrowes, in his apology published last Sunday, said the editorial should not have passed the Editor’s desk. Burrowes said that the views expressed in the publication by no means represent the majority of shareholders, the Board nor the Management and staff of Chronicle.
Burrowes said that while he understands the frustration that has led to the protests, he finds it ironic that the very ones who are protesting have publicly said, that they don’t read the Guyana Chronicle.
“It’s a double standard. Suddenly they realize that the Chronicle exists and they can protest against it,” Burrowes told Kaieteur News.
However, Burrowes in an earlier interview had said that he was willing to meet with anyone who wants to discuss the issue.
The PNCR, the main party in the opposition coalition APNU, has deliberately stayed away from commenting on the issue, leader Robert Corbin said yesterday.
Corbin said the PNCR believes that the ruling PPP wanted to “bait” the party into getting into a political quarrel, but it resisted and was “happy” that civil society, social activists and the media have been the ones championing the campaign against the editorial.
Corbin said he believes that the issue is best served if it is not transformed into a PNCR/PPP issue.
“We’re very happy the way the issue has been frontally dealt with,” Corbin said, referring to the actions of civil society and the social activists.
The AFC accused the ruling PPP of backing and engineering “heinous anonymous writings including scurrilous personal attacks” in the state media and on internet blogs.
Gerhard Ramsaroop
“This is totally unacceptable and must stop. The most shameless thing about this is that taxpayers’ money is used in this enterprise; we are paying for the fomenting of division in our own society and for attacks on ourselves!” AFC executive Gerhard Ramsaroop stated.
He called for an immediate reform in the state media apparatus along the lines of how the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) operates.
“We demand its immediate depolitisation and the establishment of a new board drawn from distinguished resident and non-resident Guyanese to oversee its operations. Finally, all hate internet blog sites, whether pro-government or opposition must be also shut down, with immediate effect,” Ramsaroop stated.
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