Reduction of State Ads… Govt and Stabroek News hold conflicting views

Oct 01, 2019 News

By Kemol King

Stabroek News’ Editor-in-Chief, Anand Persaud

The Department of Public Information (DPI) has come out with an extensive statement replying to the accusation by Stabroek News that it is withholding State Ads to punish the newspaper for its strong positions on Government’s handling of the December 21, 2018 No Confidence Motion.

Prime Minister, with responsibility for Public Information, Moses Nagamootoo

But Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief, Anand Persaud, told Kaieteur News yesterday that the explanation by DPI in its statement is insufficient to prove that Government is attempting to stifle the independent newspaper. He told Kaieteur News that the explanation is a fabrication to hide from the true political motivations behind the withholding of ads.
In the statement, DPI assured that there is no removal of Government advertising from any newspaper. It stated categorically that there is no evidence to support the Stabroek News allegation, deeming it to be false, erroneous, malicious and self-serving.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had been singled out in the initial Stabroek News article. DPI’s statement said that Nagamootoo, upon reading the accusation, had requested that DPI provide an explanation.
DPI blamed the reduction in advertisements over the past two months, in the Stabroek News, on a May 22, 2019 letter by Guyana Publications Incorporated (GPI) – the publishers of Sunday Stabroek and Stabroek News.
That letter was to tell DPI that due to a large outstanding debt for state ads, it would refuse to accept new placements until DPI substantially settled the amount outstanding. DPI stated that the action by Stabroek News was “high-handed, irresponsible and malicious”.
To buttress that contention, it noted that the $22,118,485 which it had owed Stabroek News at the time of receipt of that letter was not an unusual amount, and that it has owed other newspapers even larger sums. It also stated that no newspaper has ever imposed such a blockade for outstanding debts, purporting that it has a tendency to clear the buildups of debt once the funds are made available.
“Payments are expeditiously made to the newspapers for advertisements as monies are received from the various government ministries that use DPI to book advertisements,” DPI stated.
Particularly noteworthy, according to the Government’s Public Relations arm, is that the bulk of the advertisements booked by DPI are not financed from its own budget, but by the various ministries and other State agencies that use DPI to book ads.
DPI went on to discuss, in its statement, the fact that Stabroek News did not begin to receive regular ad placements after the substantial reduction in debt.
Stabroek News had reported that after the substantial settlement was made, GPI wrote in July last, to notify DPI that the flow of advertising would be returned to normalcy.
DPI stated that it just didn’t receive the requests for placement of advertisements as Stabroek News had expected, and that that is directly a result of a series of events triggered by Stabroek News.
Persaud told Kaieteur News, last night that faced with the likelihood that the Government may be changed in the upcoming General and Regional Elections, Stabroek News made the decision to ensure that it would have substantial debts paid off quickly.

New Marketing Strategies
The Department of Public Information further provided that DPI specifically, and Government, began to explore other advertisement options, with particular focuses on digital media and radio.
“DPI began advising ministries to place and increase advertising placements with various radio stations and digital media outlets along with television stations. DPI believes that given the vast reach of both digital media and radio, Government is receiving greater value on these platforms.”
Persaud described this explanation as a fabrication to draw from the true political reasons for the reduction in ad placements in the Stabroek News.
But DPI, refuting that assertion, posited that Stabroek News “in its typically arrogant manner” may have been incorrect to assume to the advertisements would resume immediately, after it had lifted its embargo.
It added that Stabroek News did not consider that state agencies would seek alternative means of advertising during the period. It said that it’s likely to take some time for the normal flow of advertising to resume.
The Ministries of Public Infrastructure, Legal Affairs and Public Security; Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Maritime Administration, River Defence Department and DPI itself, still placed ads with Stabroek News via DPI during the period July to September, after the embargo was lifted.
It also said that because of the brief embargo placed on it by Stabroek News, it advised Ministries that advertising in all four daily newspapers is not a legal requirement; that the requirement favours advertisements in only two print media – the state newspaper, Guyana Chronicle, and a rotation in the other daily newspapers. It claims it has commenced a diversification of advertising to go beyond newspapers, and that Kaieteur News, as the largest circulating daily newspaper, has received the bulk of those ads so far.
DPI stated that it is incumbent on advertisers, with the evolving nature of media, to ensure that it’s not only newspapers that receive ads.
DPI accuses Stabroek News of Anti-Govt Campaign
Stabroek News has taken a principled stance on government’s dealings with the consequences of the No Confidence Motion. DPI states that it views these and other actions by the newspaper against the administration as “regular attacks”.
DPI particularly noted that it confirmed that it’s not the newspaper’s policy to publish press releases from the Ministry of the Presidency, “even though the newspaper is known to routinely publish press releases from other entities and sometimes does so unedited and in full.”