Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 12, 2009 News
When children need answers to questions they turn to their parents and guardians. Similarly, when the citizens of Guyana need answers they look towards the government to provide these answers.
After all, the purpose of an elected government is to govern on behalf of the people. This is the covenant that exists between the government and the electorate. The government is accountable to the people.
One of the ways in which this accountability is made manifest is through the media. The press is one of the instruments through which the people are informed about actions of the government and through which the government holds itself accountable to the people.
The same applies to opposition parties and their members and constituents; the same applies to civil society groupings and other stakeholders.
When, therefore, government officials, opposition politicians and civil society leaders refuse to comment on inquiries from the press, whenever they dodge this responsibility, whenever they deny the public access to information by such ruses as “the matter is under investigation”, “no comment” or “we are not dealing with this today”, not only is freedom of expression held in contempt but more importantly, the covenant, that is supposed to exist between the people and these groupings, is undermined.
For months now, this newspaper has had an extremely frustrating time in obtaining responses from leaders within our society. For months now, matters of public importance are being swept under the carpet through a wide variety of means, the main one of which is the evasiveness on the part of Government officials.
Kaieteur News is not prepared to allow the right to know to be undermined by the silence of leaders within our society. The people are entitled to answers and we in the media cannot forsake our responsibility to provide those answers.
As such from today, we begin a new column intended to ensure that certain matters do not fade out of the public limelight because of the unwillingness of the authorities to provide answers to our questions.
The purpose of this new column is not to get at anyone. We intend to hold all major stakeholders, including religious and cultural leaders, accountable by reminding them of the need to provide answers where these are required.
We will continue to ask the questions that need to be answered and to publish the comments we receive from these leaders. We will publish their responses in this new column, until such time as answers are forthcoming.
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