The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) says the GINA ads cut-off to Stabroek News appears prima facie to be an attempt to stifle free expression and the body along with regional publishers and broadcasters is seeking an early audience with President Bharrat Jagdeo to discuss the matter.
In a letter to President Jagdeo dated January 24, ACM President Dale Enoch said the regional body gathered its information on the controversy from a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release of January 15, 2007; another GINA statement published in the Guyana Chronicle on January 22, 2007; a press release issued by Guyana Publications Inc on January 15; information and views published in the national and international media and communication with the Stabroek News.
Based on its assessment of the situation, the ACM has alerted its international partners to the matter and has begun consulting with concerned Caribbean publishers and broadcasters.
It referred to the fact that not a single advertisement from a government ministry, except for dispatches related to Value Added Tax (VAT) administration via the Guyana Revenue Authority, had been placed with the Stabroek News and the fact that other media houses were not similarly affected. The ACM said it was concerned because the withdrawal of state advertising from the media is a well-known strategy employed by political administrations to punish perceived dissent and to encourage self-censorship.
"In many instances commercial circumstance, including poor market penetration, is cited as the main reason behind the reduction in advertising bookings. Virtually self-fulfilling financial injury and decline sometimes follow," the letter said.
Stating that the ACM believes that the Stabroek News issue precisely fits the profile outlined, Enoch said there is a recent record of antagonism, published instances of political censure and the absence of independent marketing information to support the claim of negative public responses to state advertising placed in the newspaper.
The letter said "GINA's press release of January 15, 2007, for example, states specifically that 'the basis for the placement of advertisements in the media is linked to the public's response to such advertisements.' This is stated without reference to any reliable marketing information or to independently verified circulation records."
Enoch said "if our information is accurate, we believe the situation involving the Stabroek News would constitute, prima facie, an attempt to impose a regime of self-censorship on the newspaper and to stifle free expression."
Pointing out that the international media community generally frowns upon the use of financial pressures to influence editorial policy, he said that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in its Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, established that, "The exercise of power and the use of public funds by the state, the granting of customs duty privileges, the arbitrary and discriminatory placement of official advertising and government loans; the concession of radio and television broadcast frequencies, among others, with the intent to put pressure on and punish or reward and provide privileges to social communicators and communications media because of the opinions they express threaten freedom of expression, and must be explicitly prohibited by law."
The letter quoted, too, Chapter 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec, endorsed by the Jagdeo administration, which states that "Tariff and exchange policies, licences for the importation of paper or news-gathering equipment, the assigning of radio and television frequencies and the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists."
Noting, too, that the intimidation of the press through an economic boycott was inconsistent with the ideals set out by these commitments, the letter also quoted Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which refers to the right to free expression "without interference."
President Jagdeo, who left the country yesterday morning for Russia told the local media prior to his departure that the axing of GINA ads to Stabroek News was purely a business decision and that the government would advertise in two dailies - the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and the privately-owned Kaieteur News and some newspapers published at weekends - an apparent reference to the Mirror newspaper which is closely aligned to the ruling party.
Jagdeo said that the choice of the Kaieteur News was because of greater circulation and the "dwindling" circulation of the Stabroek News.
Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud has said that the President's argument was unconvincing and if he was positing that circulation was the determining factor in the placement of ads he had to have a solid basis for pronouncing definitively on the circulation figures of the three daily newspapers.
As of now, Persaud said, the President has provided no evidence of this and appears to have relied on hearsay and unreliable information.
He said the President's explanation has done nothing to dissuade Stabroek News from the view that the cessation of ads was politically motivated and done out of pure vindictiveness.
The ACM was among the first organizations to condemn the government's action and among those who had had initially called for government's reversal of its decision.
The Guyana Press Association, the Guyana Human Rights Association, the Jamaica Gleaner, the Barbados Nation, Guyanese and regional journalist Ricky Singh and Trinidad Express Editor-at-Large Keith Smith were among others who also condemned the action.
The Inter-American Press Association, which has a membership in excess of 1,300 representing newspapers and magazines from Patagonia in the south to Alaska in the north has also condemned the move by the Jagdeo administration and has also called on government to reverse its decision. The International Press Institute - a global organisation of editors, media executives and leading journalists dedicated to the protection of press freedom - has also joined in the lobby.
The two political parties that have voiced their concern over the issue are the Alliance For Change and the PNCR-1G.
The ACM is an organisation of journalists and media worker associations spanning the Caribbean Basin.
It was established in Bridgetown, Barbados on November 28, 2001 at a meeting of media worker organisations and media practitioners from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. It has since included journalists and media workers from Belize, Suriname, St Maarten, Martinique, Guadeloupe, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and United States-based Caribbean journalists.