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Int’l press group condemns Freddie Kissoon attack
The International Press Institute (IPI) has condemned the latest attack on columnist and human rights activist Frederick Kissoon.
“We are very concerned about this week’s attack on Freddie Kissoon and we urge the Guyanese government to open an immediate investigation and to bring those responsible to justice,” IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills said.
Freddie Kissoon
He said officials must ensure that what appears to be a campaign of harassment against Mr. Kissoon and his family is stopped.
“The right to engage in critical journalism is vital to any democracy and must be respected.”
Mills added that IPI was also urging the loosening of restrictions on private media in the country, calling the government’s radio and television monopoly in the Linden area “a significant obstacle to the free flow of information”.
Kissoon was assaulted late Wednesday night after speaking at a public vigil near the Parliament buildings in Georgetown. The vigil was held in solidarity with the people of Linden, who will today mark the one-month death anniversary of the three Lindeners who were fatally shot during a demonstration, reportedly by police.
The columnist said he was leaving the vigil when a man pounced on him, landing him several blows to the face and head.
After fellow activists responded to Kissoon’s cries for help, the man fled in a black SUV that Kissoon said had been seen “circling” the vigil, the IPI reported.
Kissoon has written critically of the official response to the incident, authoring a recent piece in which he echoed suggestions that the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was conspiring to exacerbate the country’s racial divisions.
Kissoon told IPI he believed the mastermind of Wednesday’s attack was “someone high up in the government obsessed with his (Kissoon’s) politics”. In a column published just last Sunday, the journalist called himself “the second most molested victim of state oppression in post-independent Guyana” and wondered aloud whether an attempt on his life was imminent.
He also wrote that his wife had recently been “hounded” out of her job at a government investment agency and that his daughter had been the victim of malicious blog postings.
The WPA and the AFC have condemned the attack on Kissoon.
“Kissoon who is known to be fearless in his condemnation of all forms of oppression and injustice, must be able to walk the streets of this country free from fear,” the AFC stated.
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