Stabroek News has sold its soul

Dear Editor,
There is a prevailing consensus among certain Guyanese that the Editor-in-Chief of the Stabroek News, Guyana’s independent daily, has sold his soul to the devil to regain PPP government advertising in his newspaper. The behaviour of the Stabroek News ever since the Govern-ment of Guyana restored government ads to it is disgracefully anti-black and patently pretentious. The government had ceased doing business with the paper for alleged biased reporting two years ago but restored ads last month. Now there seems to have been a nefarious deal, as the paper has emerged as a rancid sourpuss against black interests, and marching to the tune of the Guyanese ruling party.

During the period of the suspension of the ads, its owner, Mr David de Caires, a Portuguese-Guyanese, led an international campaign claiming that press freedom was under siege in Guyana, which was selfish, haughty and grossly insular at best.

He disregarded attacks on African-Guyanese members of the journalistic fraternity, the many attacks on the Guyana Press Association, the murder of journalist Ronald Waddell who once worked for him but whose sin was being black, and the criminal arrest and imprisonment of journalist Mark Benschop. Not once did he mention these other journalistic interests in his egocentric endeavours. How stink? Now that he is back in bed with the racist PPP, he promotes their interest and ignores the oppression of the Afro-Guyanese population.