Clueless about the role of the private media

Apr 06, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
Today one can easily tell that things are rapidly slipping away for the PPP. The most current example of this came in the National Assembly from the ruling party’s Chief Whip, Ms. Gail Teixeira, who in response to Opposition Leader David Granger’s comment about GINA not covering the views of the opposition accurately in Parliament, totally missed the concern of Mr. Granger.
For the record, Mr. Granger was enquiring about GINA; check the Hansard, Ms. Teixeira. He was not talking about Stabroek News or Kaieteur News. Mr. Granger clearly said “In the opposition we were quite distressed about the content and the quality and the character of reports of the budget on the first day, Tuesday, particularly by the Government News Agency (Government Information Agency).”
Thus Ms. Teixeira’s response was absolutely uncalled for and should be rejected for its absurdity. Ms. Teixeira was cited as referring, instead, to a “perceived lack of balance in the privately-owned newspapers and new media”. She said “The government has long held that the volume of “anti-government” reports emanating from the “opposition media” warranted the state media coverage heavily slanted in its favour since it needed to get word out about its policies and programmes.”
Talk about apples and oranges!
The taxpayers do not fund the private media and thus the taxpayers have limited influence over their editorial policy. However the State media is owned by the people, not the PPP or Ms. Teixeira, and thus must have an editorial policy that serves all Guyanese, especially those who voted for the majority in the opposition ,and thus their respective parliamentary representatives have a right to be heard on the State media.
But this abuse of the State Media by the PPP is naked political opportunism and vindictiveness. They continue to use other people’s money as if their grandfathers left them a trust fund to finance all their wicked propaganda.
Well thank you Mr. Granger for exposing the NCN and GINA again and remember now – Zero for NCN, GINA and the Chronicle of Lies in the 2013 National Budget; let Freedom House pay their expenses since they are the mouthpieces of Freedom House.
The verbal attacks on the independent media over the years are obvious attempts to intimidate the journalists into self-censorship. The vitriolic and tyrannical statements from the PPP members often fuel rage among their unthinking supporters who then pose a threat to journalists doing their jobs. But we have news for the regime; they cannot and will not bully the private media into submission.
Given the pompousness displayed by the Jagdeo/Ramotar administrations, especially when they are being exposed by the media for corruption, high crime rate and blatant disrespect for the people, we expect such responses as highlighted above.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

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