For those who knew the man, Father Morrison was the press freedom crusader whose conviction that people had an inalienable right to know propelled him to challenge the authoritarian media policies of the Burnham administration.

If, as American history professor James Horton believes, there is a strong link between personal history and a country's history, then the history of Father Morrison's fight for a free press in Guyana is an integral part of the history of press freedom and the history of Guyana in general.

In the 1970s, when President Forbes Burnham decided to introduce the "paramountcy of the party" and place Guyana "in transition from capitalism to socialism," the media naturally became part of the armor of his rule.

Father Morrision, like the leaders of the PPP, couldn't accept that a once-democratic Guyana was degenerating into authoritarianism.

As Ms. Janet Jagan did through the Mirror, Father Morrison used the medium of Catholic Standard to tell it like it is, even when the Burnham administration and later the Hoyte administration restricted newsprint imports to both newspapers.

There was a time when people couldn't be seen going to public meetings organized by parties opposed to the PNC. People risked their jobs and general well-being when they opted to buy a Mirror, a Catholic Standard or a Dayclean, or two or all three, and expressing one's opinion in public, sometimes even to one's relatives, was risky business.

It is due, in part, to Father Morrison's pioneering work that the U.S. organization, Freedom House, can say the following about Guyana in its 2002 Annual Survey of Press Freedom of 187 Countries:

"From independence in 1966 until 1992, Guyana was ruled by the autocratic, predominantly Afro-Guyanese, People's National Congress (PNC).

"The first free and fair elections were held in 1992, and 80 percent of the eligible population voted.

"Citizens can change their government through direct, multiparty elections. The 2001 elections generated a broader consensus about the importance of election reform to the democratic process. Because the constitution lacks explicit guarantees, political rights and civil liberties rest more on government tolerance than on institutional protection.

"Yet the rights of free expression, freedom of religion, and freedom to organize political parties, civic organizations, and labor unions are generally respected.