Happy Birthday Kaieteur News!

Apr 05, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Thirty years ago, against the run of play so to speak, this newspaper was born. Glenn Lall took a courageous decision to venture into what was for him uncharted territory.

Someone once said that, “Success is not for the timid. It requires the boldness to venture into the unknown, the courage to embrace uncertainty, and the willingness to take great risks.”

Against this background, not many gave the Kaieteur News a chance of surviving. Many told Glenn that he was throwing his money down the drain and that he would regret deeply what he was getting into. In post-colonial societies, newspapers are risking financial ventures. Private newspapers have historically had a short shelf life in Guyana. In fact, Guyana’s first newspaper, the Courant van Essequebo en Demerary, barely lasted a year. Others followed and crumbled.

Even more discouraging was the fact that Guyana did not at the time have an established tradition of strong independent newspapers. During the era of cooperative socialism, the state assumed domination of the media. Only a few non-government publications, with minuscule circulation, were being published. The government dominated the print and broadcast newspaper, including nationalizing newspaper and the main private radio station.

The Stabroek News would eventually be birthed in 1986, published initially in Trinidad and flown into Guyana. It was against this backdrop of a history of state-dominated media and attacks on press freedom that Glenn Lall took a huge gamble and with some partners started this newspaper.

Many questioned also whether there was space for a third newspaper in such a small economy and at a time when the country was just beginning to recover from a prolonged period of economic difficulties. These difficulties included shortages of foreign exchange which had meant restrictions on the importation of newsprint.  It was not that there was not a need for another newspaper but whether the market could sustain another competitor.

Lall however was a risk-taker. Despite the odds being stacked against him he launched his newspaper, first as a weekly, then a bi-weekly and later a full-fledged daily. Today Kaieteur News is still standing.

It has done so because of the sheer determination and courage of one man, the publisher, Glenn Lall. But it has come at huge price: the loss of thirty year of his live exclusively devoted to running a newspaper when he could have been undertaking less demanding and more rewarding ventures.  That says something about his character and courage.

Weaker men would have crumbled. But not Glenn Lall. No other newspaper, in the history of the Caribbean, has faced so much repression and victimization as the Kaieteur News. For the first 10 years of its existence, this newspaper was deprived of government advertisements. One political figure told Lall that if he wanted government ads he had to get rid of one of his editors. That person was perceived by the government as anti-government.

Lall refused to betray his editor. The newspaper continued to be deprived of government ads despite becoming the daily with the highest circulation. Ads eventually came but would later be withdrawn after the demi-Gods within the PPPC government felt the paper was exposing too much corruption. At Babu Jaan a call was made for the boycott of this newspaper. That call was made by a man who once ate from the same plate as Lall.  The public stood by Kaieteur News. They did not adhere to that call.

Horrific attacks were launched against the newspaper, including the murders of pressmen, the firebombing of the printery and the throwing of a grenade under the vehicle of the publisher.  But even these horrendous acts of intimidation could not deter Glenn Lall and Kaieteur News.

One politician once said that this country needs more Glenn Lalls. Today he is saying something completely different. At one time, the paper was accused of being in the camp of the APNU+AFC but when the attempt was made to rig the 2020 elections, the newspaper took a principled stance against the rigging.  Yet the very persons, who benefitted from that victory, today are attacking this newspaper. After the elections, this newspaper took a decision to advocate for a better oil deal for Guyana, something that even the ruling party agreed with when in Opposition. But now Lall is being deemed a villain and labeled all manner of things because of the stance he and his newspaper has taken in relation to the oil contract. Forces are now stealing away the newspaper’s reporters in an attempt to ruin it.

With the rise of online news sources and the demand for skilled reporters, Kaieteur News faces its sternest test yet. But if there is anyone who can steer Kaieteur through these challenging times, it is Glenn Lall. He built a newspaper from scratch into the nation’s top daily publication and he did so while fending off attacks and victimization, including calls for a boycott of the newspaper and a decade of no government ads.

Happy Birthday Kaieteur News!

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• courage, Glenn Lall, Happy Birthday, Kaieteur News, Peeping Tom

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