PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has said that the government’s decision to withdraw advertisements from the Stabroek News and place them in the other privately-owned newspaper, the Kaieteur News, was based purely on money and was not an attack on press freedom.
At a press conference Thursday, he also said that Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President, Dr. Nanda Gopaul, would be taking legal action against those who claimed that he issued the orders for the ads to be withdrawn from the Stabroek News.
The President said it is the policy of the government to offer advertisements to two newspapers – the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and one private newspaper.
Mr. Jagdeo said that as in any business where value for money is the prime consideration, the decision was taken to withdraw ads from the Stabroek News since Kaieteur News has a wider circulation.
He said the government looked at the number of printed copies of the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News in deciding which has the widest reach.
Mr. Jagdeo charged that only “warped minds” could come to the conclusion that the withdrawal of ads from Stabroek news was an attack on press freedom, lashing out at those organisations which he said only jumped on the bandwagon without examining the facts.
The decision of the government has been condemned by the Guyana Human Rights Association, the Guyana Press Association, and other organisations representing the media in the Caribbean, and internationally such as Reporters Without Borders.
Mr. Jagdeo said it is the government’s decision where it is getting its money’s worth.