Latest update May 22nd, 2026 12:38 AM
Pres. Ali faces press after ‘182-Day silence’
…mounting national concerns to take centre stage
(Kaieteur News) – One hundred and eighty two days after his last press conference, Guyana’s Head-of-State will hold a briefing today amid a slew of national concerns including human trafficking, the shutting down of Parliament protests by minibus operators over fare increases.
The media conference will be held at the Office of the President, Georgetown from 2:00pm and comes exactly half a year after his last similar engagement, which was held on November 21, 2025.
Notably, only accredited members of the media, with a Presidential Media Pass will be allowed access to the engagement, a fairly new protocol established that limits the number of journalists that can represent one media entity. With the recent closure of Stabroek News, concerns have been raised regarding the representation of independent media houses compared with the thriving number of pro-government news entities.
President Irfaan Ali
Moreover, media are wary of the format adopted at previous press conferences held by the president, limited reporters to one question and a follow up, significantly hampering the media from being allowed to deeply probe specific areas that warrant absolute clarity. If time permits, reporters are allowed to ask a second question after the moderator circles the room.
In its New Year’s message, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) had flagged the troubling decay of media freedom in the country, with reporter’s being restricted. The body said, “Officialdom’s only objective is to avoid as much as possible searching questions. A phone interview or face-to-face semi media scrum on the side-lines of a major event is no substitute for a free and unrestricted press conference that allows for a wide variety of subjects to be addressed.”
Beyond presidential press conferences, the body also addressed the reduced interaction with media by government. At the time, the body said weekly post-Cabinet media briefings has been substituted with a weekly diatribe by the General Secretary of the PPP, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at his political party’s headquarters on Robb Street, Georgetown.
“In fact, journalists must now formulate new strategies and tactics to access information for the public good in an era of creeping information control by the Guyana government. The veneer of press freedom is being presented as one in which there is media plurality and supposed access to officials,” the GPA stated.
During a party press conference in March this year, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) raised concerns about what it describes as a steady erosion of transparency in Guyana, warning that the trend comes at a time when the country’s oil sector is expanding rapidly and public spending is reaching unprecedented levels.
Member of Parliament (MP) Sherod Duncan pointed to replacement of year-end press conferences by the administration with mere statements on the performance of respective ministries in December 2025.
Duncan reasoned, “All of it is to avoid scrutiny. Now if you are doing all this work and you are putting people first wouldn’t you want to engage the public? Wouldn’t you want to engage members of the media fraternity to tell of all this goodness that you are doing out there?” The MP believes that government is deliberately avoiding meaningful engagements with credible media houses like Kaieteur News as is evident in the shift from post-Cabinet briefings and now silence from Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who held regular press conferences on Thursdays.
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