THE Office of the President has denied claims by the Stabroek News that the decision to reduce government advertisements placed in the privately-owned newspaper was an attack on freedom of the press and suppression of an independent paper.
The point was reiterated in a letter sent to the International Press Association and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers yesterday by Dr. N. K. Gopaul, Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President.
Gopaul said he had been requested by President Bharrat Jagdeo to respond to correspondence from them to him dated January 24, 2007 concerning advertisements by the Government Information Agency (GINA) in the Stabroek News.
“It is very unfortunate that your organization would rush to judgment and to issue a press release in the form of a letter to His Excellency, President Jagdeo on an unsubstantiated claim by the Stabroek News without first seeking a response from the government”, Gopaul said.
His letter added:
“This is not a reasonable approach and is considered unfair and flies in the face of all the cardinal ethics that constitute good journalism. Further, it does not behoove the behaviour that an independent organization should have. The Government of Guyana has been unable to verify what the Stabroek News has reported to your organization. However, news reports and utterances here in Guyana seem to make the issue of the reduction of the advertisement by GINA to Stabroek News as one of freedom of the press and suppression of an independent paper.
We wish to set the record straight. Because of limited financial resources, the Government traditionally advertised in two dailies, the state paper and one private daily. It also offers a limited number of advertisements in a weekly paper. The Stabroek News was then considered the largest private daily and as a consequence received the bulk, if not all of the advertisements from the Government. The privately owned Kaieteur News over the last several years received a very small fraction of the advertisements from Government.
Recently, however based on the number of newspapers published (which are available to us) it was determined independently by GINA that Kaieteur News had overtaken Stabroek News by far to become the largest privately-owned paper.
As a consequence of this assessment it was decided by GINA that a majority of the government advertisements should be placed with Kaieteur News, since this represents greater value for money. We wish also to alert you that Kaieteur News is often even more critical of the government than the Stabroek News.
In addition to the state radio and television station along with the state newspaper, there are fourteen private television stations, two private daily newspapers, a privately weekly newspaper and a private monthly journal. All of these media houses operate freely without any government intervention. Therefore, you can understand our surprise that your organization would see the issue of one private newspaper losing advertisements to another private newspaper because of falling circulation as a freedom of the press issue.
The Government of Guyana wishes to make it abundantly clear that it has not withdrawn advertisements from the private media. It has shifted more advertisements to the largest private newspaper in Guyana, the Kaieteur News. This we should emphasize came about as a result of Stabroek News' significant drop in circulation.
We are amazed therefore, that anyone, including your esteemed organization, would see this approach by the Government as an issue of suppression of press freedom. It seems as though in the rush to judgment your organization is defending a particular newspaper and not the principle.
In spite of falling circulation, Stabroek News’ campaign seems to be to recruit international support to retain a monopoly on state advertisements. They are doing this through a deliberate misrepresentation of this issue to the detriment of the other private newspaper.
Further, I have been accused by the Stabroek News in my capacity as Permanent Secretary of the Office of the President as the person who gave the instruction to withdraw advertisements from that newspaper. Despite explanations to the contrary the Stabroek News continued in its defamation, the consequence of which will see a lawsuit filed against it by me.
It is the hope of the government that your organization will have a more balanced view on the matter.”