FORMER President Janet Jagan says the charge by the Stabroek News that the government has shut out all advertisements and is thus infringing press freedom is “a bit preposterous”.
In her weekly column in the Weekend Mirror newspaper, she noted that the Stabroek News “has not had to shut down, stop printing anything at all, like some of its nasty and unfair attacks on the PPP/C government, there is no censorship, it hasn’t had to reduce staff or reduce its pages.”
“It may have lost some profits, but I can guarantee it won’t go out of business.”
Mrs. Jagan, former Editor of the Mirror and a longstanding journalist, adds:
Although I do not personally agree with the alleged stopping of advertisements to Stabroek News, and would urge a reversal of that decision, in no way does it mean that my views of the paper have changed. In this column, I have several times had to refer to the perverse and mean-thinking that is expressed in the notorious letter pages, the sometimes nasty and unreasonable editorials and the misuse of the news columns to attack the party in government. In fact, Stabroek News seems dedicated to the demise of the PPP/C.
Fortunately for the PPP, that newspaper’s 2006 campaign didn’t bring about the desired outcome at the general elections.
The basic question Stabroek News must answer is: how has freedom of the press been attacked? There is no such thing as censorship in Guyana, forced or self-inflicted. They know perfectly well that the PPP restored freedom, press freedom and all civil rights and has never, ever endangered these rights.
Is Stabroek News trying to be more “sensational” than Kaieteur News?”