Wearing red armbands to signify their opposition to the banning of Capitol News reporter Gordon Moseley from the Office of the President and State House, journalists walked out of Parliament yesterday just as Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh rose to address the House.
The Guyana Press Associa-tion (GPA) action is the second such and follows a similar walkout from a Ministry of Home Affairs press conference on Wednesday. The action was well supported by media workers from private media houses.
President of the association, Denis Chabrol, and several of its executive members, including Moseley who is the vice-president as well as other media workers left the press tables as Dr Singh was about to move the first reading of a bill.
Asked about the issue as he made his way to the parliamentary chambers, former minister of information and PPP parliamentarian, Moses Nagamootoo reiterated his opposition to the ban on Moseley. “I don’t agree with it, I don’t think that being disrespectful is a violation of any law. I believe strongly in the rights of journalists to earn their living, being able to practise their profession, it’s part of the freedom of the press,” he declared.
He asserted that the ban on Moseley was an “administrative glitch” and it has to be corrected. He argued that if a journalist violated the law then the journalist should be penalized under the law. “I believe that sanctions of this sort is not an answer to issues of fairness and balance in the media or relationship between the state and the journalist,” he stated.
He expressed the belief that journalists ought to be treated fairly, adding that many people were not appreciative of the fact that they do difficult work under difficult circumstances. “They [journalists] need solidarity, not repudiation and not condemnation,” he declared adding that if journalists erred in law, if they committed slander, libel, sedition or otherwise then they should be punished under the law. He said administrative methods should be left to the journalists themselves and if the ethics of the profession are that one should behave with decorum, afford recognition of authority and give respect where it is due, this was something journalists would have to regulate themselves. Pointing to his years in journalism, and his role in several media organizations, he said he was saddened by the action. “I empathise with the victim of this transgression against the work of journalists,” he said.
Meantime, Chabrol said that what has happened to Moseley was symbolic of what can happen to journalists at anytime within the profession. He urged the journalists to remain united and expressed hope that the matter would be resolved. Noting that it was broader than the Moseley ban, the Press Association head declared that any discourse with the authorities must be about improving the relations between the state and the media.
The association has received the commitments of most of the private media houses including Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, the Guyana Times, Capitol News, Evening News, CNS TV6, GWTV News 2, HBTV Channel 9, and Prime News in its protest against the ban. The GPA has since said that it would “engage in a range of activities designed to send a very strong and clear signal to the administration that we shall not allow our rights to be trampled upon.”
Meanwhile, the main opposition party, PNCR, has also strongly condemned the ban pointing out that coming on the heels of the 17-month withdrawal of state advertisements from Stabroek News and the suspension of Channel 6’s licence, it should be concluded that “the strategic aim of the PPP, to dominate and control the media is alive and well.”
The party noted that Moseley has long been a target of President Bharrat Jagdeo’s ire, recalling an incident before the hosting of the ICC Cricket World Cup where the journalist had asked a question which caused the President “…to explode. This along with his reporting of the [Guyanese drug accused in the US) Roger Khan saga, has not endeared him” to the Office of the President.
The party said at its weekly press briefing that the fact that other members of Capitol News were allowed to enter OP and State House to cover events meant that the Jagdeo administration is trying to determine, the editorial policy of Capitol News, by deciding which reporters can attend events at the Office of the President and State House.
The party said such a move should be “vigorously opposed by the media” adding that the ban can only “further undermine any semblance to a culture of democracy in Guyana.”
It said the local media corps has an obligation to itself and the nation to defend the right to freedom of the press, which includes the “right to question any politician, however powerful he or she might believe himself or herself to be and to publish such information.”
Moseley was first told he was banned by a security guard at OP when he turned up for an assignment last Monday. He later received a letter signed by Head of the Government Information Agency (GINA) Neaz Subhan stating that the administration of GINA had withdrawn his accreditation to OP and State House with immediate effect. The letter said that though other employees of Capitol News would not be similarly prohibited, GINA would be “inclined to review the decision providing that you issue an apology in relation to the disparaging and disrespectful remarks couched in your letter to the press.”
Moseley has since refused to apologise saying that he would not allow anyone to “waste his time.” He has also questioned what accreditation GINA was withdrawing since no accreditation had ever been given to him or any media worker for OP and State House. The only accreditation GINA has issued to the media is a press pass that gives journalists permission to go past police cordons.
Meanwhile, last evening, GINA reiterated its position on the matter and accused the press association of a “campaign of misinformation”. GINA said Moseley was not censured for any media report critical of the Government but made disparaging and disrespectful remarks in a letter to the Stabroek News of July 9, 2008. “He, therefore, cannot now claim journalistic privilege”. GINA further said that because of these remarks the “Administration of the Office of the President determined that Mr. Gordon Moseley of Capitol News is persona non grata at the Office of the President and State House.”
GINA further said that the “GPA should know that access to the Office of the President and any of its annexes is a privilege granted to journalists and not a right. In view of this, journalists ought to conduct themselves in a manner deserving of such dispensation.”
It added that GINA is inclined to review the decision if Moseley withdraws his disparaging statements to the Head of State in the letter published in Stabroek News of July 9, 2008. It urged the international media not to be “sucked into anti-government propaganda of Denis Chabrol of GPA.”