Dear Editor,
It seems that every time that Mr David de Caires, Editor-in-Chief of the Stabroek News seeks to reinforce his claim that the reduction of advertisements in his newspaper was due to a political decision, the claim becomes weaker and weaker.
He first started off by boldly and unequivocally stating that government advertisements in his newspaper were withdrawn on a political instruction of the Permanent Secretary of the Office of the President Dr Nanda Gopaul.
People thought that he had definite proof when he made this bold assertion, but in his latest comment, it now appears that the charge was entirely based only on his wild speculation and used as another attempt by him to attack the government.
Although he claims that the Stabroek News circulation is still audited each month and can be published at any time, we have to wonder why he had stopped publishing these figures for some time now. Obviously, if they were published, his dwindling circulation would have been exposed. This can be the only reason.
How can he claim that the reduction of government ads in his newspaper is an attack on the free press, aren’t the other newspapers also part of the free press?
It is also noticed that he has now subtly introduced the view that the placement of ads around the world is not only based on circulation but on “the quality of the newspaper,” as well.
So who is to rule on the ‘quality’ of Stabroek News? Mr de Caires?
Yours faithfully,
Jason Hinds
Editor’s note
We maintain the position that there was a political directive from Dr Gopaul. The argument that this was a ‘business decision’ is an opportunistic rationalisation only given after we had made numerous efforts to get an answer from Dr Prem Misir and had gone public with a press release. competent and independent advertising agencies all over the world are quite capable of deciding which are the newspapers that cater for their target audience, in this case for ministry ads.
