FIRST unofficial signal of a likely reversal of the controversial decision by the Guyana Government to suspend the flow of its advertisements to the privately-owned Stabroek News has come from a most influential figure of the governing People's Progressive Party – Mrs. Janet Jagan.
It may well prove a welcome political straw in the wind but the final decision is, evidently, one for the administration of President Bharrat Jagdeo, who returned home last week from a visit to Russia on investments in mining and hydro-power projects.
He has since dismissed as "pathetic and unbelievable" repeated claims by the Stabroek News for equating withdrawal of government advertising in that paper as threats to "press freedom" and "freedom of expression".
The row is now expected to reach the attention of CARICOM Heads of Government this week at their 18th Inter-Sessional Meeting in St Vincent for which a team of regional media executives, including from the Stabroek News, plans to engage in lobbying efforts to secure support for a resumption of advertising with the newspaper.
However, at the time of writing, there was the possibility of a change in strategy in relation to place and timing of such a meeting.
As the more than month-long verbal tug-of-war between the Stabroek News and the Jagdeo administration continued with sharply contrasting claims on why the flow of government advertising has been halted, Janet Jagan made her intervention through her weekly column in the People's Progressive Party-linked weekly newspaper, the "Mirror".
Under the title "Time to reverse the decision" in the current edition of the Mirror, she has sliced away at the Stabroek News’ "hostility" towards the government, and dismissed as "preposterous" its claims of a threat to press freedom and freedom of speech in Guyana.
However, with equal candour, the former Executive President and recognised matriarch of the PPP, of which she is a co-founder, said she did not accept the government's economic argument of dwindling Stabroek News circulation for withdrawal of advertisements.
Therefore, in urging consideration for "reversing the decision", she said government advertisements "should be spread through the media on a fair basis, despite circulation and content..."
With her own record as Editor of the Mirror for some 20 years before being appointed Guyana's first woman Prime Minister in 1993, and armed with the reputation of her party as being strong in defence of "press freedom and freedom of expression" during the long 28-year rule of the now opposition People's National Congress, she then argued: "Although I personally do not agree with the alleged stopping of advertisements to Stabroek News (having pointed to recurring ads from public sector corporations and agencies), and would urge a reversal of that decision, in no way does it mean that my views of the paper (SN) have changed...
"In this (Mirror) 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 misuse of the news columns to attack the party in government..."
For her "there is no such thing as (press) censorship in Guyana -- forced or self-inflicted. They (SN) know perfectly well that the PPP (government) restored freedom of the press and all civil rights, and has never, ever, endangered these rights..."
The Stabroek News publisher and Editor-in-Chief, David de Caires, on the other hand, militantly insists with his argument that the withdrawal of advertising was sheer "political punishment" by the government for its right to dissent with policies and programmes, and represented a misuse of state power to undermine the paper's commercial viability.
He has been mobilising support from regional and international media organisations to present the dispute as constituting a wider problem of threats to press freedom and freedom of speech.
It is a contention that President Jagdeo himself had to passionately reject at a media briefing last Wednesday (February 7). He said he had to correct the serious misinformation to foreign media agencies that called him about claimed threats to press freedom in Guyana arising from the government's economic decision on suspension of advertising with the SN.
Writing in this column last month -- before the acrimonious relations worsened -- I had expressed my own deep surprise and disappointment with the government's decision.
"The decision to cut off advertisements", I stated, "must be reversed, as soon as possible. It is an unnecessary burden for a government in Georgetown that, whatever its real or perceived shortcomings, cannot honestly be accused of being opposed to press freedom or the wider freedom of expression..."
I further noted that "there is indeed an economic argument in placements of advertisements by either a government or private sector enterprise. Advertising agencies usually provide marketing guidance to clients, using circulation and other relevant data. Regional newspapers for which I work know a lot about this..."
Consequently, I maintain, since there is a difference between reducing the flow of advertisements and withdrawal altogether of such advertisements, there should perhaps be a meeting between President Jagdeo and the Stabroek News' de Caires to have the matter rationally discussed and resolved -- the sooner the better.
Now, in a statement released on Wednesday, the Jamaica Media Association (MAJ), in joining the chorus of condemnation of the withdrawing of advertising from the Stabroek News, expressed the hope that "the matter, on careful review, can be amicably and quickly settled so as to restore equity and balance to the media landscape in Guyana..."
It is my understanding that the proposed "lobbying effort" with the community's leaders by representatives of some regional media houses, is intended to be done in accordance with the spirit of the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society.
It so happens that the charter remains, to this day, largely a declaration of intent since 1997 and is yet to be transformed into a binding legal arrangement enshrined in the laws of all member states.
However, the approach in urging "equity" -- language varyingly used both by Mrs. Jagan and the MAJ -- for a shared advertising market in the quest to resolve the current row between the Stabroek News and the Guyana Government, appears more appealing than the loaded and quite partisan stances that have emanated from both the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) and the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) as reported in sections of the regional media.