The Coalition government is at odds with a free media

Oct 02, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The PNCR never had much experience with a free press. When the PNCR was in office it moved swiftly to nationalize the private media – radio and newspaper. It never liberalized radio and only allowed television licenses to select companies.
It tried to silence the Mirror newspaper. A license was denied to the Mirror newspaper to import newsprint, forcing the weekly publication into temporary closure. A series of libel suits were launched against the Catholic Standard in what was viewed, in some circles, as an attempt to muzzle criticism.
After the massively rigged elections of 1985, Desmond Hoyte, desperately seeking legitimacy, gave in to representation from Ken Gordon of the Trinidad Express to allow the Stabroek News to be printed in Trinidad and then airlifted to Guyana to be sold.

The limited and selective liberalization did not affect the government’s grip on the media. The PNC government still kept a firm grasp on the state media, including radio.

State-owned media was extremely biased. The Commission of Inquiry into the elections violence on October 5, 1982 heard some interesting tales about manipulation of the news on the state-owned radio on that day.

The PNC therefore did not have a good record when it came to press freedom and encouraging a free press. Its handling of the Guyana Chronicle since May 11, 2015 only adds to that discredited reputation.

The PNCR however cannot shoulder, entirely, the blame for what is taking place today under the Coalition government.
The information portfolio is not held by the APNU of which the PNCR is the dominant partner. The information portfolio has been the responsibility of the AFC which is supposed to be a neo-liberal party. But its record of press freedom has been atrocious.
The PNCR did not have had any experience in respecting a free press when in government. And unfortunately, the AFC has had no previous experience in running the government. This is its first stint in government. But this fact should not excuse its disgraceful performance.
The Coalition government has come in for serious criticism over its handling of press freedom. The Guyana Press Association(GPA) has had reason to call condemn what it saw as attempts by a government Minister to dictate editorial content to the state-owned Guyana Chronicle. The GPA has had cause to side with workers of that entity who were complaining about political interference in their work. The organization, which represents media workers, has also been critical at what it saw as political meddling in the work of state-media workers. It has even come out against the failure of the President to hold regular press conferences. Two columnists of the Guyana Chronicle were removed – without any proper explanation after they were critical of the government. This action was widely condemned and led to resignations of some Board members of the state-owned newspaper.

The GPA condemned the manner in which media workers, covering a conference of the Guyana Defence Force in January 2018, were treated. It got an apology from a Minister who has a penchant for the use of a very colourful phrase.

The state-owned still has a commanding presence within the media. The government is running a monstrous media bureaucracy. There is the Department of Public Information, then there is National Communications Network and then there is the Guyana Chronicle. The government is running a number of community radio stations across the country. The Ministry of the Presidency has its own massive media outfit.
And it has matched that presence with the sort of imbalance which was seen during the PPPC’s time in office. The Guyana Chronicle today is not much distinguishable from the Guyana Chronicle of the PPPC era.

Better was expected of the Coalition. It was not expected to outdo the PPPC in terms of excesses. No wonder people are saying that what the country had in 2011 was not change but exchange.

The private media has not been free of threats. A grenade was thrown under the vehicle of the publisher of this newspaper, in what was seen as an attack on the newspaper’s independence.

The controversy over the sharp reduction in government advertisements to the Stabroek News is by far the most ominous of all developments within the media over the past four years. . The government will discredit itself with the explanations it is giving about why the advertisements were reduced. To blame the Stabroek News for depriving itself of governments is as silly as the government as the government can get.
Guyanese have an old saying. “When cow going slaughter house, it don’t care where it [defecate].” It could be that there are persons within the government who feel that whether or not the government wins the next elections, they will not be returning and therefore they do not care what they do. So they are doing what cows do when they are heading for the abattoir.

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