Dear Editor,
The Stabroek News has found yet another opportunity to unleash its anti-government venom through its editorial of Sunday, October 31, 2010. I am not surprised that the newspaper has resorted to a slanted version of what took place at the annual National Toshaos Council Meeting at the Guyana International Conference Centre.
Let me say from the beginning, I have no apology, absolutely none, for asking the two reporters to leave the conference centre, knowing they were not invited to the sessions they tried to sneak into, under the guise of state media practitioners. It is no coincidence they sent Kwesi Isles who up to a few months ago worked with NCN Radio and Television. At no time did I prevent the reporters from interviewing the Amerindian leaders.
The editorial accused us of trying to suppress freedom of expression and took the liberty to say it was informed that Amerindian leaders were instructed not to speak to that newspaper. If Stabroek News was so skilful in extracting such information from the leaders how then it is unable to say from whom such instruction came?
I am a strong believer in press freedom (which the PPP/C administration has proudly promoted) as much as I am firm about media practitioners observing rules, procedures and protocols as they go about their profession. Media practitioners must not believe they are a law unto themselves.
The editorial has pointed out the presence of the state media which traditionally enjoys the rule of exception, especially in cases where there is need for national events to be captured in their entirety for archival purposes. The government cannot depend on the so-called independent media to perform such tasks.
On this occasion, the Stabroek News has been faithful to its role as part of the agenda of the political opposition by trying to contaminate the minds of Amerindian leaders as a way of undoing the successes made by the government. The Stabroek News has constantly and consistently represented and propagated the views, ideas and opinions of groups and individuals who pride themselves as oppositionists against the PPP/C administration. Have you ever wondered why most, if not all of the columnists in the Stabroek News have an anti-government orientation?
Yours faithfully,
Kwame McCoy
Editor’s note
1. We could not have “resorted to a slanted version of what took place at the Toshaos Council Meeting” because we did not report on the actual session themselves at all. As is clear from what Mr McCoy himself goes on to say, we were simply not allowed into them.
2. As Mr McCoy well knows, SN made no attempt to “sneak into” the sessions, let alone in the guise of members of the state media. The first of the two reporters involved, Ms Tiffny Rhodius, identified herself clearly as being from Stabroek News when asked, and the second, Mr Kwesi Isles, who has been attending events for this newspaper for some time, was already known to Mr McCoy, as is obvious from his letter. (Mr Isles left NCN in 2008, not recently, as Mr Isles claims.)
On Tuesday, the first time we went to the National Conference Centre, Ms Rhodius was simply standing in the lobby waiting for leaders to come out of the auditorium, when she was asked if she was from Stabroek News. On affirming this, she was then requested to speak to Mr McCoy, who was standing some distance away. As we reported, Ms Rhodius told Mr McCoy that she was not seeking to go into the session, but he evicted her outside the gate in any case.
Mr Isles went to the conference centre on Thursday, and had a similar experience to that of Ms Rhodius. The issue at all times, therefore, was why we were not allowed to remain in the lobby or other appropriate space in the building so we could interview the Toshaos, not whether we could go into the meetings.
3. Mr McCoy is being disingenuous when he says that at no time did he prevent the reporters from interviewing the Amerindian leaders. He did not have to issue a ukase; he simply ordered the reporters from this newspaper out onto the road, where he would have known they could not get access to the Toshaos.
It might be observed that the normal practice for public events of consequence is to make special arrangements to accommodate the press, not to try and exclude a section of the media altogether.
4. What the editorial “pointed out” was the presence of state media on the larger premises of the conference centre from which we were removed, not in the actual sessions as such; as said above, we did not expect to go into the actual sessions. However, since Mr McCoy has offered a justification for the state media enjoying the rule of exception and being allowed to attend meetings such as the one under discussion to the exclusion of other media, we will say that we do not consider his view defensible. He says that they enjoy this privilege for archival purposes because the government cannot “depend on the so-called independent media to perform such tasks.” If it were a question of simply making a video or tape recording (unedited) of the entire proceedings for the purposes of posterity, there would be no problem. But it is not. The state media were engaged in reportage as well, as can be seen from the Guyana Chronicle, and this goes far beyond a truly archival undertaking. Fairness requires that either the state media should be banned (barring a strictly archival exercise) along with their independent counterparts, or that all media houses should be allowed to cover the sessions.
5. Mr McCoy’s true thinking is revealed in his accusation that Stabroek News is trying “to contaminate the minds of Amerindian leaders as a way of undoing the successes made by the government.” The statement lends credence to the view that an open debate was not what the government had in mind when the conference was convened, and that it sought to insulate the Amerindian leaders from any source which it believed, rightly or wrongly, might cause them to question the official line. In fact, it is not the business of a newspaper to impart views to interviewees, and that was certainly not our intention on this occasion either; we went to the conference centre to listen to and report on the views of the Toshaos and councillors. By attempting to prevent us from discharging our functions, Mr McCoy opens the government to the accusation that it was afraid of what we might hear.
