Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 26, 2009 News
Guyana’s 2009 press freedom rating…
– Donald Ramotar
The 2009 press freedom rating that Guyana received is well deserved and a vindication on the part of the administration.
This is according to General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, who said that despite the odd hostility by sections of the media, the administration does not in anyway impede its ability to publish whatever it wishes.
He stated that it is important also that Guyana is a democracy of which press freedom is a critical element and an important yardstick.
According to Ramotar, the government has never attempted to dissuade press freedom in Guyana and as such the recognition was a good thing.
He opined that despite the plethora of criticism that the administration stifles press freedom in Guyana an international body that is respected worldwide has recognised the efforts of the administration to promote press freedom.
Guyana jumped some 49 places this year, over position 88 out of 173 the previous year as it relates to the press freedom index according to a survey done by reporters without borders.
This year Guyana is ranked 39 out of 175 countries surveyed.
It has tied with three other countries for that position, namely Chile, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Guyana ranked just above Suriname, France, Argentina, Italy, Panama, Taiwan, Brazil, Kosovo, Croatia and Ecuador among others.
Trinidad and Tobago ranks 28 while Jamaica copped 23.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has been heavily criticised by the local and regional media for mainly two incidents last year.
First, the Guyana Press Association condemned the four-month suspension of CNS Channel Six from the airwaves.
The bi-partisan Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB), which was set up by the government and the opposition to monitor how the broadcast media complies with their licenses, had accepted the apology of CNS owner, C.N. Sharma, for the initial broadcast of a programme in which a woman made a threat on the life of the President.
The President, as Minister of Information, acted in the wake of repeated broadcasts of the programme with no move to edit the offending remarks, and moved to ban the station from broadcasting for four months.
The President was also condemned by local, regional and international media groups when he banned Capitol News reporter, Gordon Moseley, (now GPA president) from the Presidential Complex and State House after Moseley wrote a letter defending himself and his newscast from comments the President had made about a report carried of a meeting between the President and Guyanese in Antigua.
The government owns and controls the radio stations in the country, namely 98.1 FM, the Voice of Guyana, and Radio Roraima, which operate out of the National Communications Network.
Recently, the President again came in for criticism as it relates to a statement he made during the recent Private Sector Commission dinner where he accused the private entities of helping to promote a bad image of Guyana by advertising in the Kaieteur News.
GPA condemned the statement as an attack on Press Freedom.
The GPA stated that it “is appalled at Jagdeo’s most recent statements against a section of the private media”.
“We would encourage the President to seek wider avenues to express his concerns rather than to keep going down the same narrow one way street over and over again. It is understandable and expected that politicians, more so a sitting government will never see eye to eye with the media. However, officials ought to recognise and respect the role of the media.”
“Mr. Jagdeo in sort of a subtle threat at the dinner of the Private Sector Commission, sought to lecture the businessmen on the role he sees for the media.
Jagdeo, the GPA noted, “sought to encourage those businesses which advertise with the Kaieteur News to pull their ads because he is not happy with the probing reports that have been appearing in the Kaieteur News.”
Jagdeo, the statement continued, also expressed his concerns about stories of crime being on the front page of the newspapers, even accusing this newspaper of making up stories.
The GPA was pellucid in emphasising that the two statements ought to be rejected totally and are both a clear attack on the freedom of the press.
“The President must understand that he ought not to use the bully pulpit to carry on with his tirade about the media. This latest outburst is a clear attempt by the highest office in the land to use its influence to get to private businesses that choose to advertise with the newspapers.”
The GPA noted that, “This is dangerous and does nothing to repair the already badly damaged relationship the President shares with the media.”
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