The Guyana Press Association (GPA) yesterday flayed President Bharrat Jagdeo and the military for locking the media out of the opening session of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officers’ conference, accusing the army and Jagdeo of trying to deflect attention from serious issues facing the army.
The press body has also urged its members to boycott all activities of the army, while seriously reviewing the coverage they provide to the Office of the President (OP) and other government agencies.
This was not the first time the media were barred from covering such an event and there has been no official explanation from the GDF or OP for the action. In a hard-hitting statement, circulated on its mailing list and dispatched to media houses, the GPA said it was no accident that media workers were asked to leave the conference. It said their expulsion was deliberately hatched in the hope that this would be featured in the media, rather than the recent alleged torture of civilians and soldiers. According to the GPA, this tactic was first used in 2006 at the height of the disappearance of 30 AK-47 assault rifles and five handguns from a bond at Camp Ayanganna. Last year, when the media were allowed to cover the conference opening, it said Jagdeo diverted attention from the issue by lambasting the United States on its narcotics record and viciously attacking the media as “lazy.”
According to the association, this latest decision to exclude journalists from covering the opening ceremony of the GDF’s conference has not been taken lightly, adding that it was nothing more than a form of censorship and an excuse for controlling the press. “All freedom-loving and respected military and civilian organisations in this hemisphere and other parts of the world must take note” that the media – a key pillar of democracy, good governance and transparency – were now the target of the GDF at the behest of the Government of Guyana which is on the verge of surpassing past atrocities against the media dating back to the 1970s and 1980s in Guyana, the GPA declared.
According to the association when Jagdeo wants to proffer his views the media oblige and attend his press conferences without grumbling, even if “we have to wait long periods, as was the case Monday when we sat for 45 minutes over the
