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Press Freedom – Involvement or Defilement
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- The Reporters without Borders (RSF) Index for 2024 indicated that Guyana scraped out four spots from 77th place to 73rd on the chart. To advance four spots is better than falling by that same amount or more. It is well-received, as paltry as it is, but an improvement by 14 spots would have been cause for some optimism. And, if the incredible could have occurred, viz., Guyana advancing by four times four (16) places on the RSF Index, then some rejoicing would be in order, with kudos to the PPPC Government, and President Irfaan Ali.
Though creeping from 77th place to 73rd has something going for it, we at this paper think that, at best, press freedom has stood still in Guyana. At its worst, press freedom could be said to have declined in the last year. President Ali himself has been hostile to press professionals, as we ourselves have experienced. Vice President Jagdeo, who is a vast repository of crucial information, has been abrasive, disdainful. The former president has outdone himself with his abuses and excesses, which mock any claims about press freedoms in Guyana.
Leaders and agents of the PPPC Government love to proclaim the ‘return of democracy’ in Guyana, but thrive through operating in secrecy. In true democracies, government leaders look at independent press professionals as assets, as filters that work in two ways. One is to pursue the vital issues of the nation in a dogged manner, so, two, there is ventilation of the positives and negatives, as they occur. A vibrant press is an organ of democracy, one that is welcomed. Although the State media, for obvious reasons, could find itself handcuffed, the independent sections of private media have a duty to bridge the gaps between policies and practices. In other words, what government leaders promise will happen is actually bearing fruit. Leaders, who are secure in the forthrightness of their own standards and actions, do not fear the independent media and the fullest freedoms for the press. They encourage it by their own examples, and by the messages they send their loyalists and defenders.
On the other hand, when government leaders operate in a stealthy manner around tough questions, or with a pronounced bias against certain sections of the media, then press freedoms are under attack. The touchiness of the president and vice president around pertinent questions give them away. What is it they have to hide? Why do they and their subordinates go on the defensive when concerns about the biggest issues in Guyana are raised? Journalists should never feel as though they are doing their work in a shark tank, when seeking to get to the facts to inform the public. But a shark tank it has been, and almost on a full-time basis, since weekly comes close. Now there seems to be a determined presidential drive to handcuff the press (independent sections) still more, with plans that can only be sinister for Guyanese.
Cunningly visions on the drawing board to muzzle the press can only advance already conspicuous leadership malaise. Unfairness in the allocation of State advertisements does not enhance press freedom, but seeks to drain the oxygen out of it. Being selective in which media houses are invited to press conferences held by the government to share breaking news does not build press freedom, but diminishes it. When press professionals, who go after and share information that leaders prefer the public not to know, are vilified on social media and other channels, that can never be said to be conducive to freedom of the press. It is seeking to pick the free press apart, and then convert it into a docile poodle. The PPPC Government has more than its share of friendly media assets, yet it is a sign of its fears, that there is this compulsion by to shut down the few independent voices still around.
A government that does what benefits citizens will be cheered by everyone. When it doesn’t, its leaders see threats everywhere, fear their shadows. When lawsuits are weaponized against media professionals, it isn’t about reputation. It is about scaring off those probing for facts. When restraints multiply, Guyana’s press freedoms aren’t strengthening, they are weakening.
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