Confusion reigns at and rains down on the Guyana Chronicle

Mar 10, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I got up earlier than usual yesterday morning because I had to testify at the Lindo Creek massacre Commission of Inquiry, which meant I had to walk my dog earlier than usual. I went to my emails at 5:00 AM and there was a mail from Dr. David Hinds in which he reproduced a letter sent to him from the Editor-in-Chief, Nigel Williams, that stated inter alia; “It is with deep regret, that I inform you that effective March 12, your Sunday column ‘Hind’s Sight’ will be discontinued. This decision has been arrived at following discussions at the highest level of the company in keeping with policy directions. The Guyana Chronicle as it continues with its rebranding would like to focus on new areas which require specialist interventions at this time.”
Mr. Williams gave me a long interview, which had two strange contents. First, he does not want to me to write that it was a decision of the Editor-in-Chief but that of Editorial Management. Secondly, when asked if his words “at the highest level of the company” means the board, he asserted that it means editorial management.
I would like to think the highest level of a company must denote the authority of the board.
Mr. Williams indicated that the board was made aware of the new dispensation but it was not for the board to make the decision; that was the jurisdiction of Editorial Management. Secondly, Williams told me that the Sunday edition is going in a new direction that would render the types of commentary that Dr. Hinds and Lincoln Lewis write irrelevant. Lincoln Lewis was also dropped from the Sunday edition.
Asked why, he said the Sunday papers want to feature columnists who analyse technical/specialist areas. He gave oil/petroleum as an example. He conceded that Hinds and Lewis are specialists in their own respective rights but not in the departments, the Sunday issue is looking for.
Williams is firm in the attitude that the changes to the Sunday edition do not fall within the jurisdiction of the board and therefore a decision was not asked for.
Board Chairman, Geeta Chandan, has a different story to tell. Ms. Chandan told me that the dropping of Hinds and Lewis was discussed at a sub-committee of the board. Four persons were present; the meeting was held in her absence but that management knew she was not in the country. She pointed out that Ruel Johnson of the sub-committee was not there too. She felt given those two absent members, maybe the meeting could have waited.
Chandan explained that all sub-committee decisions must come to the full board for ratification and that was not the case with this sub-committee.
Chandan is firm in her position that it is the board that should have made the decision on Hinds and Lewis and she most assertively disagreed with Williams that a change in direction of the Sunday Chronicle was not a matter for the board. She insists it is.
Ms. Chandan admits that she is very displeased with what has taken place. But it was board member Ruel Johnson who was inflexible in his attitude when contradicting his Editor-in-Chief.
Johnson says any decision of Editorial Management that adversely affects the image, marketing and circulation of the Chronicle is the business of the board. He believes that the dropping of Hinds and Lewis has political fallout and that is a matter for the board to discuss.
Johnson assured me that he is unmoved in his belief that the Guyana Chronicle should have writers who offer dissenting views and when he was on the previous board, he advocated for the PPP to submit columns but the offer was declined.
General Manager, Moshamie Ramotar, said that though it is not policy for the GM to be notified which column is discontinued, there is a tradition of informing the GM. She said she knows nothing about the discontinuation of the commentaries of Hinds and Lewis because nothing was sent to her in writing.
Mr. Williams admitted that he did not inform Hinds and Williams that he needed commentators on technical issues only for Sunday and he did not raise with them the transfer of their Sunday columns to midweek editions. Mr. Williams was explicit that he did not take a political direction.
When asked if Joe Harmon would have instructed Mr. Williams, Ms. Chandan said, “No way.” The Prime Minister is out of the country recovering from heart surgery, so his reaction will have to wait. Guyana is indeed a funny place.

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