Kaieteur News still unable to print on own press
Stabroek News
January 4, 2003
Kaieteur News was unable to print its Friday edition yesterday as work is continuing on its arson-damaged pressroom.
Two gunmen severely damaged the newspaper’s press-room last Tuesday morning by setting off two explosive devices believed to be grenades.
Publisher of the newspaper, Glen Lall had told this newspaper on Thursday that he hoped to print an edition in black and white since three units were back in order.
But yesterday he said he had been unable to put out an edition due to a problem with the power box. “But I will be back, I will be back, I am hoping to print tomorrow (today)”, he said even though the newspaper does not usually print on Saturdays.
Responding to a press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) which said that the state-owned Guyana Chronicle had made its pressroom available to the newspaper, Lall stated that only one edition of his newspaper was printed by the state-owned entity.
He said he had contacted them on Old Year’s Day and requested their assistance and they had told him he had to get his material ready by 6 pm.
He recalled that he had managed that and when the paper was ready to be printed he was informed that there had been a bomb scare.
He said at around midnight on the same date, the Chronicle printed its edition and his paper was printed at around 6 am on New Year’s Day. He has not contacted them since.
Lall again repeated his belief that there was someone attempting to “cripple” his newspaper.
He said he has lost some $20M in the incident and that neither the building nor any equipment in it had been insured.
In a press-release the Guyana Press Association condemned the attack on Kaieteur News. “The free media are the watchdogs of the society.
They provide the society with information from just about every quarter. They expose that which some people including officials, seek to hide.
Their sole purpose is to inform the public. We therefore find the attack abhorrent, reprehensible and a threat to the very fabric of the existence of the free media”.
