Since the 1st November 2006 the Government of Guyana has withdrawn advertisements for some 29 government ministries, agencies and state owned corporations from the Stabroek News. The distribution of these ads is handled by the Government Information Agency (GINA). The head of GINA, who is a political appointee, refused for two months to give any explanation whatsoever for this abrupt and absolute withdrawal. Eventually, when the Stabroek News went public with the matter earlier this year it was claimed that this was a business decision based on circulation. The Stabroek News then proposed that the paid circulation of the three daily newspapers be audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation and that a professional advertising agency be consulted to determine which of the newspapers had the target audience for the types of advertisements placed by the government. Neither suggestion was entertained by the government.
The cessation of advertising followed several bitter attacks on the newspaper by Guyana’s President Mr Bharrat Jagdeo.
A large number of individuals and organizations spoke out against the withdrawal of ads including the Guyana Press Association, all the main private sector institutions, the Guyana Trades Union Congress, the opposition political parties, the regional media, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Inter-American Press Association, the International Press Institute and Reporters Without Borders.
A regional media team agreed to attempt to seek a solution of the matter and met President Jagdeo at a heads of government meeting in St. Vincent in February. That team comprised Mr Harold Hoyte (Barbados) representing One Caribbean Media Limited, Mr Dale Enoch (Trinidad and Tobago) President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers; Mr Newton James (Jamaica) representing the Jamaica Gleaner and Mr Rickey Singh the Guyana-born Caribbean journalist based in Barbados.
The team offered to advise on and assist with the setting up of a fair system for the distribution of government advertisements. By May the team concluded that the government was not willing to settle the matter and issued a press release to that effect. It stated that the “current unfair and undesirable situation of a total withdrawal of advertisements from the Stabroek News could objectively be viewed by independent observers as having the effect of subverting the commercial viability of the newspaper, and by extension resulting in a press freedom problem.”
A government cannot take taxpayers’ money and use it in a manner that is patently discriminatory and intended to punish its critics and reward its media friends. As custodian of the state’s resources it must distribute these in a manner that is fair and in keeping with the interests of the entire population. Article 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec to which this government has subscribed provides as follows: “
