Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 09, 2010 Editorial
We continue to be dismayed by the administration’s stubborn – and we believe, ultimately futile – vendetta against the media in general and Kaieteur News in particular. We say “futile” because as we have emphasised time and again, we shall not be stayed to stray from our mission of simply purveying news to our readership. News that is of interest to our readers: the proof of this interest is in the reading.
Even though we were forced to raise the price of our newspaper after the government violated its declared policy of allocating state advertisements based on circulation figures yet precipitously reduced our proportionate share, our readership has not only held its own but has actually grown.
The government, we know, controls its own media – including the Chronicle and one can safely assume that the output of that organ is not offensive to its sensibilities. After all, we have not heard any complaints, much less broadsides, being hurled in that direction.
Recently, the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) of the Guyana Elections Commission – an avowedly autonomous and independent institution – rated the coverage (“positive” or “negative”) of the government and other political parties by the four Guyanese dailies and offered an insight as to what type of reporting might be acceptable to the government.
According to the MMU’s report, the Chronicle gave the government a “ninety-two percent positive coverage” while Kaieteur News clocked at a “four to one” positive to negative ratio. Now when the KN’s ratio is translated into percentage terms, it means that eighty percent of this newspaper’s coverage of the administration was “positive”…but even this does not satisfy the powers that be. Obviously the administration would brook no coverage that is not slavishly sycophantic: only positive coverage in the nineties may earn its approval. And then, we suspect, this latter blessed eventuality may depend on exactly which minuscule topics are given a “negative” tinge.
But, we are forced to ask, what exactly is “negative” news about the government or its activities? We print most of the releases and handouts that flow so copiously from the myriad arms of the government. However, we suspect that these would land in the “positive” column. It means then, that it is our examination of the government’s releases that is dubbed ‘negative” and earned their ire. Take, for instance, the latest cause celebre – the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project which has caused the administration at the very highest levels to gnash its teeth. We do not see what is “negative” about our coverage.
We reported on the government’s latest announcement that it was going ahead with the decade-old project and was awarding a contract for the access road to the remote interior location.
The Chronicle did the same without complaint so what was therefore “negative” has to be the additional step we took to examine the bona fides of the contractor, the financing of the project, the comparison with similar hydro-electric projects etc.
Now none of the matters covered in this additional step is out of line with solid, accepted journalistic practice, but as we took pains to point out – were actually supposed to be covered by the government functionaries that are being paid (handsomely, we may add) to perform these tasks. If in fact we reported a single item that was not in accordance with the facts – as for instance, the contradictory percentage savings the project would offer to the present electricity tariff, offered by several spokespersons – we would be happy to offer retractions. So much for the reporting on facts.
The MMU also pronounced on the area in which a newspaper may be most prone to be biased – and negative – its editorials, where the newspaper offers its official opinion on matters of interest to the nation. Our editorials, the report declared, “… were a model of consistency in balanced and impartial opinion writing”, especially since they “did not spew forth much political commentary.” We say no more.
On the matter of letters, being the opinions of our readers, once they do not violate our guidelines, they are printed – even from the administration’s (well paid) spokespersons. So why the continued gnashing of teeth?
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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