Dear Editor,
No one can deny that there is full press freedom in Guyana. It is too free for my liking because anyone can bask under this freedom and say or write practicably anything with little fear of reprisal. Gone are the days of the muzzled press or those times when you could not express a dissenting view to that of the ruling elite without the experiencing the vindictiveness which was sure to follow. The brutal hand of the PNC was stamped on everything and the consequences were dire if one said something.
One can recall the days of the Chronicle newspaper that carried “the truth.” The editor of a leading daily newspaper now was the editor of the Chronicle, and he knew full well that the things he wrote at that time were not the truth.. In those days there were no Freddie Kissoons et al; they just could not exist. During those turbulent years it was only the Catholic Standard that I can vividly remember dared speak up, and what a price they paid.
So when the naysayers peddle the notion that there is no press freedom in Guyana, that is a lie.
Today every Tom, Dick, Harry and Lall Beharry owns and churns out whatever he/she pleases for news without fear or ill will. What I would ask those who dare to disagree with me is just to take a look at the historical records and they will readily be jolted into reality.
Yours faithfully,
Neil Adams
