Dear Editor,
Please permit me to state the following points in response to a letter by Eric Phillips in the May 9, 2011 edition of Stabroek News headlined `Brother Tacuma should know better than anyone else that Odinga Lumumba cannot threaten Eric Phillips’.
He appears to take issue with the contents of two news reports published on www.demwaves.com , a website that offers daily news updates and breaking news.
1. The headline was a quote from Tacuma Ogunseye’s speech itself; the words Riot Act were not mine. Eric Phillips is in the habit of doing exactly what the Government of Guyana does i.e. criticize the messenger when in disagreement with the message. He is no different from the PPP or the PNC when it was in government on matters of the media. For him, the media must toe his line or nothing!
Phillips delegated the principal of another online entity to go after the truth and speak with Ogunseye. In an interview with that principal, Ogunseye called Phillips liar. After that was quoted in the headline, Phillips promptly called the principal and expressed disgust. Phillips further told the principal not to speak with him again.
2. There is division and debate in ACDA about the acceptance of money from the government, with both sides having merits and demerits. It is on the basis of that ongoing debate that the question was asked once at a news conference at ACDA. I do not recall any of the other recipients being critical of the government but still receiving funding, hence the Phillips illogic.
3. It was Eric Phillips who called and told me that Odinga Lumumba and others were calling on ACDA to issue a statement and that such will be forthcoming. He also went on to say that somehow Lumumba got a recording of the speech and they had their people out there. This begs the question as to why Phillips must call and tell me that. He also said on Facebook that Private Sector executive, Ramesh Dookhoo had also called him on the matter.
4. I hereby challenge Eric Phillips to prove his insinuation beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt that I recorded Ogunseye’s speech. I trust that his much vaunted fellowship will provide him with the much needed intellectual fortitude and armamentarium to salvage his morality to speak on matters with which he is grossly unfamiliar.
5. My contact with Ogunseye in no way prejudices my journalistic integrity. He is asked the hard questions even if he dislikes them. The same holds true for anyone across the political and other divides. Journalism is not like your third degree black belt or fellowship. Journalists have no friends and no enemies. That’s akin to Lord Chesterfield’s often quoted expression: “Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.”
6. In Eric Phillips’ failed attempt to besmirch my character and journalistic integrity, he tried to hide the fact that there were two fundamentally different statements from ACDA on the Ogunseye speech. Again, how dare I question Phillips the all-powerful ‘minister of information’ by producing the statement that was unanimously agreed to? In the interest of transparency, I challenge him to publish both versions. The public will see that one distances ACDA from Ogunseye and the other sticks by him. At minimum, if it is not you, tell us who changed or included the contentious sentence: “The Executive Committee has also never discussed what would happen if any group were to win or lose an election.” That sentence is in direct contradiction to what Ogunseye has said at Beterverwagting in the name of ACDA.
7. Prior to the reproduction of the www.demwaves.com article on the Ogunseye speech by the Guyana Chronicle, that newspaper had used reports without permission and/or attribution to Demerara Waves. Having regard to our previous disagreement, the Editor-in-Chief, Mark Ramotar sought and acquired permission to use the Ogunseye article. It was not until the following day that the plot became apparent that the Chronicle and its handlers had harboured hidden motives for doing so. During the day of the publication; the Office of the President, Ethnic Relations Commission and the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting all called me on the matter.
Having bilked the Ogunseye statement for all the political capital that it’s worth even in the government-controlled media, today the government glibly talks of introducing laws and regulations to govern the content of new media such as websites, Facebook and Twitter.
The position that ACDA has taken or will take on the Ogunseye speech is an internal matter for that organisation. Demerara Waves is duty bound to publish news reports based on the application of journalistic training and expertise to the material facts provided and/or acquired.
Finally, let me take this opportunity to wish Eric Phillips well in his pursuit of, at minimum, a journalism workshop and media attachment. May he also find the wherewithal to curtail his preoccupations with financial and monetary matters associated with ACDA, thus subduing his rancour and media enmity when questions are raised.
Yours faithfully,
Denis Chabrol
demerarawaves@gmail.com
