Dear Editor,
Most of us who enjoyed genuine freedom of the press (FOTP) will take umbrage at the Presidential Permanent Secretary (PPS), Mr. Gopaul’s remarks that government’s withdrawal of advertisements from Stabroek News (SN) is not a FOTP issue. We, and I feel confident that I can speak for all those who have enjoyed FOTP, feel that such comment by PPS is either a mockery of FOTP, or a blatant attack on the democracy. Therefore, Mr Editor, permit me the liberty of your media to demonstrate how little value, if any, such a statement/remark has in a democracy, which Guyana claims to be.
It goes without saying that, for communication policy to be most effective in a functioning democracy, it requires the greatest possible degree of informed participation by the public. Thus, the withdrawal or restriction of advertisements from such prominent and quality media (i.e., SN) only serves the self-interest of the government, and marginalised participation from the general public. Though the PPS may have made a diligent, enthusiastic and conscious effort to defend the government’s inequitable and discriminatory position, there is no doubt in the minds of those of us who enjoyed real FOTP, that in the midst of doing so he made a mockery of FOTP. The cost benefit argument put forward by the government is nothing more than a slippery slope theory. The time has come especially after the recent elections to stop playing politics with the nation’s civil liberties, and FOTP is one of them.
I call upon the government to reconsider its position on the withdrawal issue in a positive way.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Bobby Gossai
