US warning to anti-free speech officials 

May 29, 2025 Editorial, News

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Editorial…

Kaieteur News- The United States Government’s announcement on Wednesday that it will impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans should be a wakeup call for the Guyana Government that has been on a warpath against the free press here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that for too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights. “Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority. Foreigners who work to undermine the rights of Americans should not enjoy the privilege of traveling to our country. Whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over,” Rubio said.

Since returning to government, the PPP/C Government has not only targeted media outlets it deems unfriendly to it, but also opposition and ordinary social media activists for pushing back against its excesses. Both senior and junior officials within the government have filed multi-million dollar suits against individuals for defamation and libel and have used its trolls and other activists to attack journalists who do not write or broadcast favourable news items for the government.

This publication and others in this country have heard how much freedom is cherished, from individual freedom of speech to freedom of the press. The embarrassing reality makes a mockery of those claims and postures from a government now committed to lip service only on important obligations and standards in Guyana. When hypocrisy and leadership deception are sought after as proof, Guyana offers a treasure trove of both.  The PPP/C Government stands as the major contributor.

This publication has a history of speaking frankly and powerfully on the issues that different governments prefer to remain untouched and unaddressed. It was at the forefront in pushing back against the APNU Coalition’s efforts at undermining the democratic process during the 2020 elections, which were hammered at and the party’s leadership put in an ugly light. Two others were the incompetence and mismanagement that plagued the last government and its unpardonable mishandling of the nation’s oil wealth. None of the coverage from this publication was met with the regard that was due.

As an independent media house, and a voice for and of the people, we were fulfilling our duty. When they are in opposition, politicians delight in the exposures of their opponents. But when they have the reins of power in their hands, their tune and their outlook change. They are still for press freedom and free expression, but as they decide what those should be.

On the PPP/C Government’s part, there is simmering anger when contract award discrepancies and skullduggeries are presented to citizens. Corruption is at such rampant levels in Guyana that it would be a black mark on any neutral, unattached, and professional media entity to look the other way and fail the people.  But leading lights in the PPP/C Government are outraged when the almost daily reports are published for the public’s benefit. The gripe is that what about all the progress that is being made, the good being done. It seems that somebody forgot that doing things of that nature are why a government is put into power in the first place. Doing what is positive does not mean that all the incompetence and shenanigans of any government should be ignored. When official wrongdoing is on an express track, when government leadership is highly questionable, then that is when press freedom is priceless.  Free speech does not and cannot coexist with willful blindness, nor does it surrender to the dictates of any corrupt government, the whims of any political leader looking to cover his or her bottom.  Free speech expressed responsibly is to the benefit of any government, helps it to identify the loopholes, guides it to make the appropriate corrections, even when it means handing alleged criminal colleagues over to the law.  Free speech is a vital check and balance on the apparatus of governance.  It has its role in ensuring that that machinery is working as it should.

Regarding Guyana’s oil patrimony, there is so much that is deficient, so much PPP/C Government cowardice.  When we point to the gaps and failures in oversight, the government and its people turn into a mindless mob.  Press freedom is assailed and savaged.  But these are the same people speaking so sweetly about democracy and freedom of expression.  Our staff has been repeatedly poached not by private media competition, but by the government.  Frequent leadership disparagement and social media revilements are now regular features in the life of the independent and outspoken media in Guyana.  But the PPP/C Government is shameless enough to insist about how much it is for free speech.  The government’s management of the oil wealth has so many secrets, so much corruption, that it fears the truth being presented, so its senior people lash out blindly.  The press is allowed to operate freely and responsibly, or the PPP/C Government’s freedom to behave unconstitutionally and lawlessly.  Free thinking Guyanese must decide.

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