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Apr 20, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I am not going to use this space to engage someone named GHK Lall, because I don’t think that individual has ever had even a remote connection with journalism or newspapers. Lall’s obsessive condemnation of the Kaieteur News may stem from something I don’t know about. The writer was at it again, as recent as yesterday, after penning another nasty attack last week to which I did a column of response on Wednesday.
The purpose of this column here is not to do what Lall does – criticize other newspapers. I believe people read letters in the newspapers and they may be left without an explanation about curiosities they have. Lall’s letter yesterday is a manifestation of complete ignorance about what the role of a newspaper is. The writer compares the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News, and the subtle condemnations of, and nasty jabs at the Kaieteur News, cannot be missed.
In this article here, I am going to stay very far away from any criticism of the Stabroek News. My opinion of that newspaper is a positive one. Missing in Lall’s criticism is an elementary knowledge of what a newspaper is, that even a schoolboy would know.
I don’t know if Lall saw the famous Hollywood journalism movie, “Spotlight” that won the Oscar for best movie. I don’t know if he saw another recent top movie on journalism, “The Post.” I don’t know if he read any books on the Washington Post’s role in the downfall of Richard Nixon. I don’t know if he is aware of the role of the New Yorker magazine in exposing the abuse of Iraqi detainees by American forces at the Abu Ghraib prison. One of the Pulitzer Prize awards is for public service. Last week, the New York Times won it for its exposure of the sexual vices of movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein.
If you want to know what the essential role of a newspaper is, then those examples I cited above graphically tell you what purpose a newspaper should serve in a society that it operates in and serves. You can put all types of descriptions to a newspaper that are positive, but those adjectives must capture what the essential role of the media is. You can say the newspaper is responsible, safe, cautious, conservative, careful, mature, trusted etc. But at the end of the day, it has to do what is its quintessential role.
Before we come to that; why is it called the fourth estate? Space would not allow for an extended discussion, but when the press was originally referred to as the fourth estate, though it meant another source of power in addition to the parliament, the church and the nobility, the term was deliberately designed to imply a check on power. It was this “check” dimension of the description that endured over the centuries and currently defines the media.
Simply put, the fourth estate is the watchdog of society that serves the citizenry in its relation to the forces of power. From 19th century onwards, the newspaper has been seen as a guarantor against excessive government, abuse of power, prevention of autocratic government, provision of space for citizens to fight against their oppression. The modern role of the press simply has one expression – guarantor of rights and freedoms. The press may have faulted in that task countless times, but countless times it has checked authoritarian power and in many instances, stopped it.
If you take the discussion to Guyana, then I think in the history of newspapers, the Kaieteur News has outperformed any other newspaper in the distant and contemporary past, and in recent times, as the embodiment of what the fourth estate means. Because of its small size, limited circulation, the Catholic Standard cannot be compared to the Kaieteur News, but I will put it next to Kaieteur News in the crusade to serve freedom and justice in a country.
The Argosy, Guyana Graphic, Guyana Chronicle and the Stabroek News cannot be compared to the Kaieteur News in the context of the essential role of the media. This is not to say that those newspapers have not excelled with regard to their duty to safeguard society and its civilized values. But the Kaieteur News for all its failings, weaknesses and rough edges, has served the purpose of the fourth estate exceedingly well. From here on it may lose its way, but its phenomenal impact on Guyanese society is now an indelible historical fact.
All over the world, we must judge a newspaper by the risk it is willing to take to save a country from disastrous power. That is happening in the US right this minute.
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
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