The media must not be complicit in its own decline

Jan 01, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Kaieteur News – For almost the entirety of this year, the media and the public have been treated to both a travesty and a charade, at least this is the impression I have arrived at having listened to an analysis of the press conferences hosted by the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Bharrat Jagdeo.

The General Secretary has been redefining the role of press conferences.  His weekly press conferences have become exercises in throwing tantrums, and busing-out the Opposition and sections of the media.

Instead of using his platform primarily to provide information or to reveal some development of topical concern, his press conferences are being used primarily to respond to criticisms of his government. Much of what he says belongs on a political platform and not a press conference.

Jagdeo’s conduct constitutes a distortion of the purpose of a press conference. Press conferences are intended to become a platform for sharing important information, making announcements, providing updates and for responding to reporters’ questions.

Press conferences are not intended to be primarily used for responding weekly to criticisms by the Opposition, to attack sections of the media and for politicking.  But that is exactly what Jagdeo has turned his usual weekly press conference into. And he makes no secret of this.

Jagdeo’s obsession with the PNC is unhealthy. While one appreciates the mental scars which the PNC’s 28-year rule has had on the psyche of many PPP/C leaders, Jagdeo must not get stuck in the past.

This past week was awful. Instead of updating the nation on the performance of the economy and of the sectors over which he has oversight, he instead preferred to begin his press conference by resurrecting the memory of the deprivations suffered during the 28-year rule of the PNC.

As I have said before, very little of real value emanates from these press conferences. This is evident in what is reported in the press in the days following the press conferences. Much of his Opening Statement is ignored in the reports that follow the presser. But the reporters go because it offers them an opportunity to ask him questions.

It must be tortuous for the media to endure these Thursday affairs. They have to sit and listen to Jagdeo’s marathon opening statements – another respect in which the practice of press conferences is being rewritten. In which part of the world are there such marathon opening statements at press conferences?

Why should the media have to attend weekly press conferences only for the PPP/C General Secretary to counter something that was said earlier at another press conference or to respond to some criticism of the government? Is this what press conferences have been reduced to?

For the media to subject itself to this weekly dose of diatribes and tantrum-throwing by the General Secretary of the PPP/C is to court disrespect. But the situation gets more sordid when one observes the utter disdain, bordering on hostility, shown to Kaieteur News’ reporters.

Kaieteur News has consistently been at the receiving end of the tantrums of the General Secretary of the PPP/C. Their questions are most often than not deflected by his comments that he has dealt with that issue before and that the Kaieteur News is repeating itself.

What has been noticeable also has been the agitation of Jagdeo when confronted with questions about Exxon. His entire demeanour changes and he often dismisses questions by claiming that he has dealt with that issue before and would not be dealing with it. When faced with awkward questions, his favourite excuse is to direct the reporters to his Ministers when he ought to know well that those ministers are not easily accessible or forthcoming.

Some reporters of Kaieteur News have expressed concern over his attitude towards the questions they ask him. They have even indicated their unwillingness to attend his press conferences.

The Guyana Press Association should take a position on Jagdeo’s press conferences. Should press conferences, week after week, be primarily be about responding to Opposition comments, especially those made at the Opposition-hosted press conference? Do Jagdeo’s press conferences meet the expectations of the purpose of a press conference? There needs to be a public debate as to whether what is hosted each Thursday by the PPP’s General Secretary constitutes a press conference.

Is the media, as a collective unit, prepared to continue to be a part of this weekly charade and travesty knowing fully well that it will set a precedent for others to use press conferences to vent their venom against their political rivals? The media must avoid becoming complicit in the undermining of media standards and the distortion of the purpose of a press conference.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

---

• Bharrat Jagdeo, charade, complicit, decline, PPP’s General Secretary

---