The 16-month-long ads boycott of Stabroek News by the state has deepened with the Office of the Auditor General and two important projects funded by the World Bank and the IDB failing to place their advertisements with this newspaper although advertising with the other two dailies.
Those placing the advertisements are silent on the issue. Their actions are in tandem with the government’s withdrawal of advertisements from the Stabroek News beginning in November 2006.
Among those placing the advertisements and appealing to the public to get involved in their activities, particularly recruitment, are the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force.
The Office of the Auditor General, which is a constitutional body, is also not placing ads with the Stabroek News.
Recently, too, advertisements relating to the Citizens Security Programme, which is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), have been placed in the country’s two other dailies but not in the Stabroek News.
The World Bank-funded Guyana Conservancy Adaptation Project being executed by the Ministry of Agriculture is another project that is not being advertised in this newspaper.
A small number of projects that are jointly funded by international donors and the Guyana government are still being advertised in the Stabroek News in spite of government’s boycott of ads to this newspaper.
Joining in the boycott of advertisements to the Stabroek News as well is the Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) administration where the ruling PPP/C and the PNCR-1G had formed an alliance to share the top two positions.
Advertising Manager of Guyana Publications Incorporated, publishers of Stabroek News and the Sunday Stabroek Patricia Cumbermack told this newspaper that on noting certain advertisements appearing in the Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News she sought answers by way of letter from the executing agencies as to why they were not advertising their projects in the Stabroek News.
These advertisements concern the Guyana Conservancy Adaptation Project and the Citizens Security Programme (CSP), which are funded by the World Bank and the IDB respectively.
Cumbermack wrote a similar letter to Auditor General (ag), Deodat Sharma noting, too, that advertisements from his office had been placed in the Kaieteur News and the Guyana Chronicle but not in the Stabroek News. In spite of several attempts to get him on the telephone he was never available.
To date no response has been received from the letters to the three entities, which were dated February 22, 2008.
However, in a follow-up by telephone the Secretary to the Auditor General acknowledged that the office had received her letter.
Similarly, Director of the Agricultural Development Unit, Ministry of Agriculture Dr Elizabeth Ramlall, who is responsible for the execution of the World Bank-funded project, acknowledged that her office had received the letter.
Dr Ramlall, Cumbermack said, indicated that she was not responsible for the placement of the advertisements and referred her to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. She was unable to contact the Permanent Secretary.
In relation to the CSP, Cumbermack said, she was given a contact number for Coordinator of the CSP in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Terrence Narine. The telephone number given to her rang out.
Cumbermack said that in relation to the army, she spoke with a Major Daniels who said the army’s position was that, “We send our advertisements to GINA and GINA looks after the ads.” She was unable to contact any senior police officer on the issue.
When this newspaper contacted Police Public Relations Officer Ivelaw Whittaker, he said he could not comment on the matter and referred this newspaper to Deputy Commissioner of Police – Administration, Edward Wills. This newspaper made several efforts to contact Wills, but to no avail.
Cumbermack said she contacted the Region Four Regional Executive Officer (REO) Shafdar Alli who, when asked why the ads were no longer being given to Stabroek News, said he could not comment and referred her to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon.
Though she did not make contact with Dr Luncheon, Cumbermack said she subsequently spoke with the Region Four Chairman Clement Corlette who said he had expressed his concern on the matter to the REO. However, she said, “We still do not get ads from them.”
The government withdrew its advertisements from 29 ministries and government entities in November 2006 citing economic considerations.
Value for money
Commenting on the latest developments, Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud said that the boycott by the units executing the Citizens Security Programme and the East Demerara Water Conservancy Programme is alarming, and raises numerous issues related to good governance. Given the expansive nature of the two projects and their importance to security and drainage he said it was inexplicable that Stabroek News would be discriminated against.
In relation to the Office of the Auditor General, Persaud said the constitution says at Article 223 (a) that in the exercise of his functions the Auditor General “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.” Therefore he said that the Acting Auditor General should explain whether the decision by his office to advertise only in the KN and GC was an unconstitutional direction or it was at his direction. Persaud said if Sharma was responsible for the decision then he should account to taxpayers for how he was getting value for money for these ads by ignoring the Stabroek News. Persaud said this is exactly the type of question that the OAG has to consider in its evaluation of the public accounts.
The SN editor said that the decision of the police and army to discriminate against Stabroek News shows how far both of these institutions, which should be outside of political machinations, have been compromised by governmental interference.
As to Region Four, Persaud said it would be a very important test on two grounds: whether PNCR’s criticism of the ads boycott can translate into real action and whether the regions can be dictated to by the government on where to place ads.
He said the referral of Stabroek News by Alli to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat was instructive and showed that regional officials believed that these decisions came under the purview of central government.
Stabroek News has argued that the two newspapers which are now receiving state ads have not been audited, and their true circulation is not known.
Stabroek News’s circulation is audited and to break the impasse it had suggested that the paid circulation and the target audience for each newspaper be used as the basis for apportioning ads. There has been no response by the government to this.
Stabroek News has also maintained that the Bharrat Jagdeo administration has withheld state advertising as a means to punish the newspaper for its editorial independence and stance on various issues.
Despite several attempts by Stabroek News and representatives of the regional media to have the matter resolved, President Jagdeo has refused to consider options for an amicable resolution.
The denial of advertising to Stabroek News puts the country in breach of the Declaration of Chapultepec on Press Freedom which Jagdeo himself signed.
Government’s action to deny this newspaper has been widely condemned by the PNCR, AFC, Guyana Trades Union Congress, the Guyana Human Rights Association, the Guyana Press Association, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, media houses in the Caribbean, and other hemispheric and international media organisations including the Inter-American Press Association.
A regional media team, which included Harold Hoyte of Barbados and Guyanese journalist Rickey Singh, had proposed to Jagdeo that a mechanism be devised for allocating ad
s. This suggestion was also reinforced by the Office of the Special Rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission Human Rights. The President has ignored the suggestion.