The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) yesterday issued a strongly-worded statement vehemently condemning what it described as the Government Information Agency's (GINA) unfair, uneven and vindictive withdrawal of Government advertisements from the Stabroek News.
Editor-in-Chief of the Stabroek News, David de Caires, has accused the GINA of withdrawing Government advertisements from his newspaper on a political directive from the Office of the President.
De Caires said the decision by the Government to withdraw ads constituted an apparent reversal of a policy to respect press freedom and constituted an attack on the free press.
However, Director of GINA, Dr. Prem Misir, said the decision was made at the level of GINA, and had nothing to do with politics.
Dr. Misir said the decision was an economic one since placing ads with Stabroek News no longer made financial sense.
He explained that the public's response from placing advertisements with the Stabroek News has not yielded much fruit.
According to Dr. Misir, this forced a decision to reduce the amount of advertising done with the newspaper and place them where financial feasibility was assured.
He added that de Caries and Stabroek News do not have a monopoly on acquiring advertisements.
And on Thursday, Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon said that Government is not beholden to any media entity to provide state support.