Guyana will lose a vital component of democracy when the Stabroek News closes its doors

Feb 20, 2026 Letters

---

Dear Editor,

From the time of our Independence, some 60 years ago, Guyana and its people defined ourselves as a democracy, yet, if you consult, for instance, the Encyclopedia Americano for a definition of democracy, you won’t find one. What you will find is a history and description of a form of democracy, liberal democracy, which is generally common to the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the British Commonwealth of Nations and Western Europe.

We may, therefore, define democracy as an indirect, representative, and constitutional government controlled by a multiparty system and universal adult suffrage. As the Encyclopedia describes it “the whole process of determining who shall govern and to what ends thus takes place within a constitutional framework, whether of custom, fundamental law, or separate charter.”

Critical to all of this is the emphasizing of “discussion and compromise within the political process” and that “liberal democracy requires the maintenance of freedom of expression and association in society at large as necessary conditions for the proper formation of a majority party prepared to assume responsibility for governing.”

Freedom of expression, freedom of speech in any modern democracy is founded and pursued through the freedom of the press, the freedom of the media, independent of the ownership, control and direction of the elected government in power.

Fundamental to a practicing democracy is also freedom of religious exercise, freedom of assembly and petition, security against arbitrary search, seizure or arrest and the protection of life, liberty and property through due process of law and trial by jury.

The Ten Principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec adopted by the Inter American Press Association in Mexico City, 11^th March, 1994, sets out and defines freedom of expression and of the press as “an inalienable right of the people”. It might have added a ‘right of the pursuit of democracy.’

So, when a country loses, especially a small country like Guyana, a newspaper independent of government ownership and control, such as is the Stabroek News, it is to be hugely regretted and undermines the democratic credentials of the country.

The reality of social media as a pervasive source of information, however unreliable, untrustworthy and uninformed, is a major cause for newspapers like the Stabroek News losing readership, suffering collapsing circulation and consequential loss of advertising revenue, leading to financial collapse.

As Ian Mc Donald in writing in Ian On Sunday (1^st February, 2026) points out, “the fact is that social media is becoming best known for spreading poison rather than truth. Instead of imparting wisdom it dispenses carefully selected material which reinforces biases – thereby increasing partisan outrage and aggravating the politics of hatred and contempt.” A pervasive threat to countries like ours with a population prone to latch on to every rumor as fact and a dangerous substitute for informed news and documented opinion featured in a newspaper such as the Stabroek News.

The Guyana Press Association in commenting on the shutdown of Stabroek News correctly makes the point that it is “a significant loss to the nation’s media landscape” and, more importantly, “to the democratic fabric of our society.”

In recent years of its publication, I have personally disagreed with the editorial slant of the newspaper, affording space, in particular, to virulent and biased critics of the governing party, like Christopher Ram, and Editorial after Editorial hammering at the government, but, rightly or wrongly, that is what freedom of the press is all about.

As a competitive newspaper, Kaieteur News, has concluded, “Guyana is poorer for its silence”.

The pending disappearance of the Stabroek News is of much more significance to our country than the fact that it is the loss of a professional and generally reliable source of information, it is, in fact, the loss of a vital component of the structure of a democratic government, because it is the loss to the nation of a vital platform for free and open expression and debate.

An essential element of a practicing democracy is a viable opposition party to the party elected to government. As the late Peter d’Aguiar, when leader of the United Force, put it bluntly in Parliament, “the role of the political opposition is to oppose, expose and depose” the government of the day. The media gives voice to that opposition as a balanced choice to the voice of the elected government. The Stabroek News, most certainly, provided that balanced voice, though some would say overbalanced in favour of the opposition.

There is no question of the fact that we have in place a governing party elected by a majority in a free, open and credible election. An election endorsed by every international observer. The question is, can we say, with serious conviction, that we have a credible opposition, also an essential component of democracy? No, we cannot. Yet, a viable opposition is an essential component to democracy. When we consider the consequences of the shutdown of the Stabroek News, it is in this context that we should evaluate it. It is, therefore, for me, and should be for all Guyanese who value democracy, that it is of particular concern and extremely unfortunate that we are about to lose a vital component of democracy when the Stabroek News closes its doors on 15^th March, 2026.

Yours sincerely,

Kit Nascimento

---

• Democracy, Kit Nascimento, Letters, Stabroek News

---