KAIETEUR NEWS IS 24 YEARS OLD

Sep 14, 2018 Peeping Tom

Anyone who has been around for a while in the media in Guyana can attest to the fact that age in the profession is just a number. Their longevity in the media has been a blessing, because it is not easy to be awakened in the wee hours of the morning for a breaking news story.
Although it is a very demanding and painstaking job, the staff find pleasure in doing it and are also thankful for the opportunity for the success of Kaieteur News, which is 24 years old today. It is a particularly significant milestone for a paper that started with the name Kaieteur Weekend World that was published only on weekends and sold and sometimes given away for free to the public.
Kaieteur World Weekend which first hit the streets in Georgetown in 1994 as the new kid on the block was not expected to last. By the turn of the century, Kaieteur News became a daily newspaper, carrying news people can trust. It always sought to tell it as it is; its front pages explicitly displayed pictures of events of pivotal developments at home and abroad. In the process, the newspaper captured the hearts and minds of readers.
Today it has become the nation’s leading newspaper. Successive teams of journalists have ensured the success of the newspaper. Its generous and caring publisher, Glenn Lall, has always recognised his dedicated staff.
At times when independent media outlets in Guyana were afraid to expose wrongdoings by public officials for fear of reprisals, Kaieteur News stood its ground for freedom of the press, for truth, for the people’s right to know and for telling it as it is. Its publisher and its editors have always been cognizant of the fact that no democracy can flourish without freedom of expression and without an unfettered media sector.
They have also understood that the press is the fourth estate which is the watchdog for the nation and represents the voice of the voiceless in society.
Kaieteur News has been tried and tested many times. Over the years, it has survived threats to its staff, a grenade attack on its publisher and the withdrawal of government advertising during the Bharrat Jagdeo regime. It has also survived several attempts to silence it through lawsuits and other frivolous court actions. There have even been challenges posed by unforeseen production problems and natural and man-made disasters. Most profoundly, Kaieteur News has survived the murder of five of its pressmen.
Through it all, it has endeavoured to remain faithful to its vision to serve the people’s interest and to inform and educate them without bias. As Eric Arthur Blair, whom the world knew as George Orwell, noted, “Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban.”
As Kaieteur News prepares to celebrate its Silver Jubilee next year, the commemoration of 25 years, it will no doubt re-commit to its ideals, mindful of the responsibility it bears as the leading member of the print media, with an eye toward the dynamism and change within the media sector and the country as a whole.
The staff of Kaieteur News is also mindful that none of its achievement would have been possible without the readers who remained dedicated to the paper and supported it. They continue to take advantage of the letter pages as a forum for public discussion and debate. The nation must have a free media.
As the German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer remarked, “Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.”

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