BBC World Questions, Guyana

Mar 11, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Ms. Helen Towner is proving to be more than an artful BBC producer. Her fancy verbal footwork is impressive, the kind that would make an acrobat envious. BBC World Questions: Guyana came to Guyana, and Guyanese from different sections of local society have doubts about the authenticity of its objectives. The program’s producer only added more energy to the skepticisms of citizens on everything about their oil wealth.

Towner said that Stabroek News’ Editor-in-Chief, Anand Persaud, wasn’t removed from the initial May 6, 2025 panel. Due to unforeseen circumstances, that program never got going, and was rescheduled. When a new panel for BBC World Questions: Guyana was compiled, SN’s E-I-C was missing from the lineup. We are trying to come to grips with Ms. Towner’s reasoning, and we arrive at this place: when the May 6, 2025 program was shelved, so was SN’s Persaud. The PPPC Government had expressed its unhappiness with the presence on the panel of Guyanese hostile to its work, and made that known in the sharpest manner.

The result was that Persaud was eased out, and a private sector representative added at the behest of the government. In recent times, the Guyana private sector is almost an extension of the government, an uphill task to separate one from the other. The outcome of all this is that the so-called ‘unduly critical’ is out of the picture, and the uncritically subservient enters the government’s scheme on how the panel should be composed. This is a government so anxiety-ridden by honest criticism that it goes to great lengths to diminish or shutdown those who do so in the local environment, and now reels in a foreign broadcasting body to bow to this same ugly standard.

To justify her decision, Ms. Towner had this to say, “I put the panel together. I can’t please everyone. I can’t put everyone on the panel.” That is true, as far as it goes. The second and third sentences just quoted (being unable to “please everyone” and “put everyone on”) are rooted in reality, just not practical for many reasons. On the other hand, “I put the panel together” doesn’t pass muster when scrutinized honestly and critically. The PPPC Government, through one of its most ardent operators, objected to SN’s Persaud being on the panel.

Lo and behold, when the BBC presented its fresh, new set of panelists, Persaud is conspicuous by his absence. But Ms. Towner put the panel together all on her own, and without any input from any outside source. And, when the PPPC Government pushed hard for a private sector person on the reconstituted panel, in came a representative from that group. But, to take Towner at her word, “I put the panel together.” We do not question that she did, but she apparently had a considerable amount of help to get a panel that pleased a government that is bent on having its way. One that must be the dominant, controlling, voice in any discussion about oil in Guyana.

We at this paper think that the BBC faltered, when it started to adjust its slate of panelists to satisfy the whims of a crafty government on the lookout for any advantage, fair or foul. Already, Guyanese are coming out and denouncing the program as a sham on the move, due to its bona fides being questioned, and the responses provided so far fail to persuade otherwise. When a program has this type of unsatisfactory beginning, its credibility suffers, any prior strong interest in it starts to fade. We also can share something else that is yet to come before the public. A Guyanese was considered, and actually invited, to be a panelist for the March 10, 2026 World Questions program. That knowledgeable citizen had to be left out, because the government didn’t want that would-be contributor participating in any way. Obviously, Towner was sharing only a part of the story, when she said, “I put the panel together.” What this veteran, well-versed BBC producer wasn’t zealous about sharing was that she received some help in the assembling of the panel, from its appearance, to its depth. Regrettably, BBC World Questions: Guyana converts to being more PPPC Government slop.

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Anand Persaud, BBC, BBC World Questions, Editorial

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