Press freedom – More pressures, more ground lost

May 03, 2026 Editorial, News

---

(Kaieteur News) – The PPPC Government must hate international bodies that expose Guyana’s raw realities.  Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, World Population Review Corruption Index, and now World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters without Borders have all had their share of government pushback.

Some of Guyana’s true conditions are often too dangerous to be ventilated by local journalists, with either independent media houses or professionals attacked and degraded over the years.  The latest World Press Freedom Index catches some of this, which led to Guyana falling three spots to 76^th place in the ranking of 180 countries.  It is a ranking that no government that claims to be a bright example of democracy could be proud of, and no leader who is for an unfettered press would be pleased.

Press Freedom in Guyana couldn’t even make it to the halfway mark, the 50% level, but stands well below at 76^th place, 14 spots under 90^th place.  It is an indictment of where press freedom is in Guyana under the PPPC Government, and the difficulties experienced by independent media houses and journalists to gather information and share that with an information-starved public. A ban on cameras in parliamentary chambers during proceedings, lawsuits weaponized against journalists trying to do their jobs and do justice to their profession, and the withholding of ad payments. The government has cleverly used the latter to push one media house out of business.

Stabroek News was a respected media presence in Guyana that grew from small beginnings to a force for fearless reporting and press freedom.  For years, it fended off attacks from government leaders and mouthpieces, but it had to bow out when the government essentially froze almost $100M in overdue advertisement payments.

Overdue not by a few weeks or months, but on a continuing basis, and for long periods.  Stabroek News’ plight, well-supported by the evidence on the ground pointed to a well-calculated and well-practiced program that had one objective: knocking it out of the local media landscape.

This paper itself is no stranger to efforts by the PPPC Government’s to muzzle it, and diminish its contributions to and impact on the public. We are currently owed a significant amount that is occasionally paid in drips and drabs, then followed by complete stoppages in payments for long periods.

Guyana has a PPPC Government that often loudly celebrates how respectful it is of the Constitution, and observant it is of democracy’s norms. Reality, on the other hand, emphasizes that it conducts itself so poorly so consistently that it makes itself into a big deceiver, with nothing but farcical claims. Until government ministers and leaders appreciate that they are servants of the people, that the press is not their lackey, and that democracy thrives on credible information freely available, then it will continue to repeat their weaknesses and expose their fears,

Given the contexts in which the independent press operates in Guyana, it doesn’t surprise when the government continues to fall in the World Press Freedom Index.  Just as it fails to improve in any significant manner relative to measurements and indexes that focus on other areas of governance. How could arms of the independent media function properly and fully when the Guyana Broadcasting Authority Board is compiled without consultation, and lacks bipartisan representation? How does the independent media report to citizens when the president rarely holds press conferences? When voices different from the government are sidelined in a policymaking and standards body, and questions cannot be asked of the head of government, those alone should convey the state of press freedom in Guyana.

It is obvious that the PPPC Government is hampered by its morbid fears over freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of reporting. It does not know, or care, how to approach dissenting voices, it dreads having a different point of view in State entities setup to provide balance and what offers fair representation of the facts to the nation. The outlook is grim, with the PPPC Government bent on using its unassailable seven-seat parliamentary advantage to fulfill its ambitions for total control of Guyanese life. The inevitable result is that more freedoms are lost, more indexes expose Guyana’s press freedom and other realities.

---

• Borders, Editorial, PPPC, Press Freedom

---