Representatives of the regional media yesterday met President Bharrat Jagdeo in St Vincent and expressed concern over the potential of the withdrawal of government advertisements from Stabroek News to escalate and also expressed a willingness to work with his government to resolve the dispute.
A release from the four-member regional delegation that met with President Jagdeo on the fringes of the Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Caricom Heads of Govern-ment Meeting in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines yesterday, said that “a window of opportunity for resolving the matter may have been opened” at the talks which were described as “frank and cordial.”
The release said that the President met with representatives of the Caribbean media, at their request. The representatives “sought clarification on his government’s decision to significantly reduce the flow of government advertising to the Stabroek News.
The delegation comprised Harold Hoyte of One Carib-bean Media, Newton James of the Gleaner Group of Jamaica, Dale Enoch of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers and Rickey Singh, independent Caribbean journalist.
At that meeting they “expressed concern to the President over the potential of this matter to escalate and to work with his government to suggest a method for the distribution of state advertising that would be based on empirical information.”
The release said that Jagdeo explained that “the switching of the majority of the Government advertisements from Stabroek News to the Kaieteur News was not a press freedom issue but a decision based on economic value for his government and determined on the newspaper’s circulation”.
The release said that “The President stressed that this was never an issue of press freedom but was made so by the Stabroek News” and spoke further about his government’s commitment to maintaining freedom of the press and defending the right of the Stabroek News, as well as the Kaieteur News to publish and to disagree with his government.
“He extended an invitation to representatives of the Caribbean media to visit Guyana and observe first-hand press freedom there,” the release said.
According to the release, Jagdeo took time off from the inter-sessional meeting to meet with the representatives “out of courtesy and respect,” he said, “for the media.”
The controversy arose after the Government Information Agency withdrew ministry advertising from the Stabroek News in November last year. Stabroek News then issued a press release decrying the move after not getting an explanation from GINA.
