World Press Freedom Day and depressing press hypocrisy in Guyana

May 04, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – I have written it before on this page and I am writing it again. The most factual and serious statement president Donald Trump ever made was his criticism of the American media. Hate Trump as much as you want, he is the only major contemporary American figure that has painted a true reflection of the terrible nature of the American media scene.
None of the major media houses in the US has any respect and shows any respect for Third World leaders. A Third World ambassador in the US will not be given a telephone call much-less a face to face meeting with the editor of any major newspaper or television station in the US.
There is no way, a Black American would have received the consistent attention the US press gave a White girl, Amanda Knox who was accused of killing a fellow student in Italy. If an ordinary woman without a wealthy background could have been so championed by the US media barons, think of if she was from the rich classes in the US. From the birth of the 20th century onwards, the American and European media establishments have been giving third world civilisation a terrible press. The world will have to live with that, maybe forever.
I have my doubts about social media and I don’t use it but what social media has done is to give voice to the ordinary right here in Guyana that the mainstream media locks out. I was appalled to see one of the major newspapers giving huge publicity through an interview with someone to offer his views on civil society. This person’s record on the assault on democratic rights in this country is simply shocking. This record includes a criminal assault.
What we are talking about here? One word should suffice – accountability. It is not only the government, business, religious denominations, the courts and civil society that should practice the culture of responsibility, the media must also. The media does not.
On the 25th anniversary of Kaieteur News held at the Pegasus Hotel, I trace the evolution of newspapers in Guyana using class analysis. Nothing has changed since I made that delivery. The media in Guyana is riveted with class and colour bias, racist instincts, shameless political endorsements.
I am the longest serving media operative in Guyana (34 years) and I can say with undiluted inflexibility, the accountability that media houses demand from state actors, they do not practice. The media landscape in Guyana today is characterised by massive recklessness and irresponsibility. At no time was this more on display than during the five months of election rigging.
Columnists were given space in private media houses to support the rigging and scandalise the international observers. This was not a random commentary or two. These columnists were allowed that latitude for five consecutive months. I asked one of the major shareholders of a newspaper to intervene to bring back her newspaper on the straight line. The lady said that is not her role. Can someone tell me what the role of a shareholder of a company is? I can certainly tell you. Whatever it is, accountability is one.
When I lived through that period of election rigging, I think of the lost days of Father Andrew Morrison and the glory days of Guyana’s journalism. I was trained under Father Morrison. The knowledge he imparted has allowed me to judge the standard of journalism in this country and that standard has certainly fallen.
Father, not even for a moment, would have approved a column in which the writer screamed in the caption that she was a victim of racism simply because she went into a store and claimed that the Indian attendants did not pay her any attention. This is a store that owned its door more than 80 years ago in Georgetown, where a majority of its customers are African Guyanese.
I worked with Adam Harris for more than 20 years and though we had our disagreements, I couldn’t see Adam carrying that column given the sensitive ethnic environment that Guyana is drowning in. It was racial incitement and it was carried in the mainstream press.
Here is the malignant tumour that is killing this country. Every compartment of society opens its eyes and detects the major problem that needs to be eradicated immediately. These dimensions then offer the solution to the problem. But the problem persists and gets worse. Do you know why? Because those who comment on the problem and offer the solution are an essential part of the problem and their commentary on the problem contributes to the problem getting more infectious.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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