Govt. defends ‘intimidation’ of media at Pres. Ali presser

Apr 04, 2023 News

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…K/News Publisher, GPA say lack of respect for journalists confirmed

Kaieteur News – The intimidation of media workers on Friday by supporters of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) during President Irfaan Ali’s press conference at the Leonora Track and Field Centre, West Coast Demerara (WCD) has been defended by the Government.

Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy in a statement on Monday sought to justify the hosting of a press conference amidst ardent supporters of the party and dismissed the statements made by the President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Nazima Raghubir; deeming her remarks as “wild accusations”.

In an article carried by Kaieteur News on Sunday, it was reported that journalists were intimated by the hundreds of party representatives at the venue, who decided to join the tent under which the President opted to host his press conference. The crowd was heckling reporters as they attempted to question the Guyanese Head of State on matters relating to the petroleum sector.

 

The GPA President said reporters could have been possibly harmed at the event, but the government has defended the circumstances under which the media were engaged.

In response to the article, Minister McCoy said, “They are claiming that they somehow felt intimidated by the fact that residents of Region Three who had been benefiting from direct government services and presidential interventions to solve age-old problems across their communities during the two-day outreach, became voluntary observers to the open-tent press conference, with some intermittently choosing to express their disgust with some reporters disinterest in the substantive matters addressed during the outreach exercise.”

He added, “And for some troubling reason, the peoples’ freedom to openly express dissatisfaction with some reporter’s persistent disinterest in the issues other than oil and gas that are germane to the lives of Guyanese and their communities, are mute, to the preeminence of the freedoms and special interests of Kaieteur News and the GPA President.”

Even though the President at no point during his engagement with the press sought to intervene in the heckling by his supporters, the Minister argued that there were no acts of hostility towards the media.

Nevertheless, the statement noted, “the PPPC Administration does not encourage any such hostilities, and the track record of the Irfaan Ali Government stands tested, proven and unrivalled with regards to extending respect, empowering support and the building of an enabling environment for unfettered freedom, access and advancement of the whole media fraternity in Guyana.”

Raghubir was quoted in the article highlighting her dissatisfaction with the mere hour and a half notice given to media representatives, stationed in Georgetown to attend the press conference, across the Demerara River. She described it as a “slap in the face of the same transparency and accountability they [the government] claim to be flying high on”.

In justifying the short notice given for the press to attend the event, McCoy stated that this is a standard global practice for the press to be on stand-by for continuous coverage at a “moment’s notice”. According to him this, “appears to no longer apply to this particular media house and the GPA, thereby rendering a one-and-a-half-hour notice for a Presidential Press Conference at the very site, terribly insulative to them.”

He therefore equated the GPA’s remarks to “wild accusations” in response to the President’s deferral of questions “related to their [Kaieteur News] oil and gas obsession, and the tented setting being an affront to the dignity and nobility of the media.”

KN Publisher responds

Publisher of Kaieteur News, Mr. Glenn Lall was anxious to respond to the minister’s statement, which he believes failed to accept responsibility for the “unsafe environment” in which the President subjected the press.

Lall said, “The minister is saying that the journalists had a problem being under the tent, but this is not the case. Had the reporters known that they would have been in this uncomfortable setting and that they were going to be mocked they would have never sat in that forum- but the fact that they sat there showed that they never expected what they were met with. Let me be clear, being under the tent surrounded by supporters of the PPP who were unwelcoming to their questions is what I sincerely have an issue with and by attempting to justify this, it shows how little respect the minister has for the press.”

The Publisher was also keen to note that while McCoy highlighted the newspaper’s “obsession” with oil and gas related matters, he also failed to admit the deafening silence from the government as it regards the management of the country’s greatest source of revenue generation.

He said, “If they are so upset and want to avoid questions from this sector at their press conferences for the world to see, they should feed the media with the information required without them having to ask and respond to the queries when they are sent to them personally.”

Disappointing response

The Guyana Press Association (GPA) in response to Minister Mc Coy’s statement described the government’s posture as “worrying and a most disappointing response”.

The GPA said that the minister’s response to its President’s concern and those of Kaieteur News journalists is in contradiction to the Media Freedom Coalition’s mandate “working together to advocate for media freedom and safety of journalists.” Notably, the minister signed and committed to the Coalition in 2021.  “The GPA finds the minister’s entire response instructive. It is, sadly, a fully opened window displaying how the government disregards the media workers and its concerns.”

The Press Association reminded that in 2018 it condemned the
heckling of media workers by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and its supporters “and this time around we outright condemned any intimidation of media workers and called for better treatment of the media.”

“This cannot be the yardstick any political party in or out government wants to use as an engagement with the press. The minister with his “media” experience, and now his mandate to build better relations, should do better,” the statement said.

Further, the GPA said the fact that President Ali sought to pre-empt what he considered would have been questions by sections of the privately-owned media in his effort to stimulate cheers from the audience by previously stated positions/ political statements that are no longer of news value is “equally disturbing”.

“Rather than lecture the media about how to do its job, the President would have been better off if he had provided details of policies and programmes to address the likely impact of an oil spill on Caribbean islands. Access to information can become an invaluable resource if invaluable details are provided,” the GPA said while urging media workers in the State and privately-owned media to note, “that situations like these, point to the need for your body to remain free from the clutches of politicians and other interest groups.”

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• defends, intimidation, journalists, President, Press Conference

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