THE Government Information Agency (GINA) yesterday said it is in receipt of a press release from the Private Sector Commission (PSC) in which it calls on the Government of Guyana to restore advertisements to the privately-owned Stabroek News newspaper.
This PSC release, the agency said, also is requesting the entire business community to provide greater support to Stabroek News.
GINA charged that the PSC’s “objectivity is transparently missing in action, as it calls for increased business support only for the Stabroek News, and not the other private newspaper.”
“The PSC is a highly elitist organisation, not representative of a sizable cross-section of small businesses. The PSC, therefore, is not a democratic voice of the business community”, the agency claimed.
GINA said its policy on the placement of print media advertisements is: place advertisements in the State media plus one private newspaper.
The other private daily, the Kaieteur News, it said, “holds the mantle today as the largest private newspaper, carrying a deeper dissemination capacity than the Stabroek News, not only nationally but internationally within the Guyanese Diaspora in New York City.”
“And so”, it added, “Kaieteur News receives the bulk of government advertising. But Stabroek News continues to receive some government commercials, a fact that may have eluded the PSC.”
GINA said that as the tenuous bastion of the elitist business community, the PSC should be mindful that the agency’s placement policy complies with a cardinal business principle of getting value for money.
“The PSC’s shoddy talk of the government’s sensitivity to Stabroek News’ independent editorial positions is hogwash. The Kaieteur News also carries independent editorial positions plus several opinion columns, many of which are anti-government; yet GINA continues to place advertisements in the Kaieteur News.
Where then is this logic of sensitivity by the government to editorial positions, as espoused by the Stabroek News’ new mouthpiece, the PSC?
The PSC needs to carefully note that probably all government ministries and agencies purchase daily a substantial quantity of Stabroek News’ circulation. Therefore, the PSC’s logic of sensitivity by the government is found wanting. The government is keenly committed to the private sector as articulated by the National Competitiveness Strategy, a partnership cemented between the private sector and the Government of Guyana”, the agency said.
It argued: “When Kaieteur News, in its early life, hardly attracted government advertisements, while at that time, Stabroek News commanded a monopoly over said advertisements, the high priests of Stabroek News never declared that Kaieteur News’ press freedom was violated; but today the PSC is equating Stabroek News’ loss of some government advertising with breach of its press freedom and this smacks of double standards.”
The Government of Guyana, it said, is fully committed to the Declaration of Chapultepec.
“We believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental right recognised in the Declaration of Human Rights, Resolution 59 (1) of the United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 104 adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as in other international documents.
The government fully supports and is committed to these declarations and conventions on press freedom and freedom of expression.
The PSC’s weeping and gnashing about a breach into Stabroek News’ press freedom is a sham; in fact, the people should slam Stabroek News for its crass abuse of citizens’ press freedom through its routine journalism of allegations.
The PSC’s time and energy would be better spent in addressing matters pertaining to the entire private sector, to which it has failed to execute in its entire existence. The PSC should focus on critical matters influencing the private sector, such as, export competitiveness, and institutional arrangements to access financing, among others”, GINA said.