Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 31, 2013 Sports
Dear Editor,
In this the season of intense rivalry associated with the imminent election of office bearers to the Guyana Football Federation one understands only too well that sides will be taken, favoured candidates will be promoted and media houses will be courted if only because of their capacity to widely promote the candidatures of those who seek office.
In these circumstances it is incumbent upon journalists to be fair and responsible in their reporting. Falsification, the manipulation of facts and the creation of contrivances purely for the sake of promoting a particular candidate of dismissing another ought to be off limits to those journalists who consider themselves principled professionals.
In this context the article published under the pen of Mr. Rawle Welch and headlined “Acrimony, disputes, accusations of corruption still permeate football landscape” (Kaieteur News Wednesday March 28) falls decidedly short of even the minimum standards of truth and accuracy.
My own particular concern is with the litany of falsehoods articulated by Mr. Welch in the matter of the role of the Kashif & Shanghai Organization in Guyana’s preparations for the football World Cup.
In what is perhaps best described as a long and tedious epistle Mr. Welch, among other things, writes the following:
“It was the Kashif and Shanghai Organization that housed and administered all activities during Guyana’s World Cup campaign and was responsible for ticketing, sales of tickets and advertising, while his (whom does the expression “his” seek to describe is decidedly unclear) involvement in the discussions related to the shifting of the qualifier against Mexico not only left a bitter taste in the mouths of Guyanese but also underlined the extent of the Federation’s disloyalty and contempt for stakeholders.”
Mr. Editor, the arrangements for the planning and execution of matches associated with the World Cup are – as Mr. Welch ought to be aware – a matter of public record and a simple telephone call to the General Secretary of the GFF would have spared Mr. Welch the ignominy of embarrassing a national newspaper.
Indeed, I am hard – pressed to believe that these altogether erroneous claims made by Mr. Welch were not motivated by mischief, his preoccupation with denigrating of one of the candidates vying for the presidency of the GFF and the promotion of another.
In the circumstances, Mr. Editor I believe that Mr. Welch owes it as much to the Kaieteur News as he does to the Kashif & Shanghai Organization to engage the GFF with a view to correcting the aforementioned gross inaccuracies and, thereafter, to issue a public apology for misrepresenting important facts and in the process misleading readers of the Kaieteur News.
Truth be told, Mr. Editor, I am particularly tempted to describe your sportswriter as a teller of tall tales since I am altogether persuaded that that he is only too well aware that these assertions are untrue.
Indeed, even if one were to assume that he allowed himself to be duped by some other interested party into believing that his altogether inaccurate assertions were true, an accurate account of the extent of the Kashif & Shanghai Organization’s role in the Guyana World Cup ‘adventure’ could have been secured with the greatest of ease through a telephone call to the General Secretary of the Guyana Football Federation.
I repeat my earlier assertion, Mr. Editor, that even in this season of rivalry and competition, journalists, particularly, owe it to themselves and to the consumers of information to be fair, responsible and accurate in their reporting, moreso when an absence of these virtues can amount to vilification and character assassination.
In the circumstances, Sir, I am copying this letter to the General Secretary of the GFF in the hope that his confirmation of the inaccuracy of Mr. Welch’s fallacious assertions will result in a full retraction by your newspaper.
Kashif Muhammad
Director
Kashif & Shanghai Organization
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 29, 2024
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