PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday indicated that the decision to pull government ads from the privately-owned Stabroek News was due to that newspaper’s falling circulation and reach, resulting in an absence of ‘value for money’.
He told reporters it was due to this fall in circulation that a decision was taken to pull the ads and place them in another privately-owned newspaper that has a bigger circulation, thus ensuring that the government gets value for taxpayers’ money.
Since the ads controversy began a few weeks ago, the Stabroek News has been placing ‘protest’ notice/s daily on its front page, just below the newspaper’s mast-head, claiming among other things that ‘the Government is misusing taxpayers’ funds in an effort to suppress that newspaper’.
President Jagdeo yesterday said he found this little protest notice to be “very pathetic”.
“I see the little notice (and) I think it is very pathetic that Stabroek News would make this an issue of press freedom because they are not getting ads; but they have to work for their ads, they have to get their circulation up (and) then, maybe, more people would advertise with them.”
He also said the Stabroek News should not blame its independent competitor, the Kaieteur News, for having a bigger circulation and being the largest private newspaper.
Most of the government ads are now placed in the Kaieteur News and the state-owned Guyana Chronicle newspapers.
The President said for the Stabroek News to claim that the pulling of government ads from that paper is against press freedom is simply “pathetic and misleading”.
He also accused the newspaper of misleading a few regional and international media houses and agencies on the issue, and giving them the impression that the government is targeting the Stabroek News and undermining their press freedom.
“The impression was created (by the Stabroek News) and these (overseas agencies) did not know that it was just this particular issue - that they had lost circulation and therefore more ads were being placed in another private daily newspaper”, the President told a news conference yesterday.
“No one can say that Kaieteur News is sympathetic to the government…if every day you read the Kaieteur News you will see one or two commentaries critical or hostile to the government but we have never used that as the criterion for placing ads.
“We are looking for value for money and so it is really a sad and pathetic attempt by the Stabroek News to try to win sympathies.”
“Can you imagine how ridiculous it sounds – that if we advertise only with this newspaper, taking taxpayers’ money and give it to the Stabroek News, then we (the government) are good boys and there is freedom of the press in Guyana…but if I don’t and we advertise in any other paper then (we are bad and we’re taking away that newspaper’s freedom of expression).”