Dear Editor,
I am no fan of President Jagdeo but I have to give him some credit for how he described the media, as I hold the same views as he does where the media are concerned. To quote President Jagdeo, he said, “Some sections of the media have an obsession with morbidity, they are just negative. Many of them so engrossed in bitterness.”
When I was wrongfully charged by the police, all the media, both print and electronic paraded me as a con or a criminal. A policeman told me in the court that he never saw so many media people in all his life working at the court. The show was well-orchestrated by a well known government politician with the support of the media. The media never interviewed me to hear my side of the story; they just blindly printed what the police told them.
Now that I have been vindicated by the court and freed of the same charges that the media found me guilty of in their ‘court,’ I have not seen anything printed or broadcast on the television about my acquittal except for the Kaieteur News, the only newspaper that printed that my case was dismissed and the reasons for the dismissal.
I provided information and documentation to almost all the opposition parties and the Guyana Human Rights Association about my innocence and not one of them has taken up my matter, and these are the people who want to get into government. Are the opposition parties any different from the ruling party? Absolutely not.
The media should have given me the same publicity on my acquittal as they did when I was arrested.
Is this how the media wants to be respected in a democratic society?
Yours faithfully,
Balwant Persaud
