The state-owned National Communications Network Inc.
sees the possibility of job losses in the state media resulting from the $21 billion in cuts to the national budget and has condemned the private media, the GHRA and the GPA over their refusal to speak out in support of the professionals who may be affected.
NCN in a World Press Freedom Day message yesterday
said it is supporting calls for reconsideration of the budget cuts, the majority of which will delay or cancel the cluster of government programmes aimed at increasing broadband internet access across Guyana, as this will work against the very spirit of this year’s World Press Freedom Day theme.
World Press Freedom Day 2012 is being observed under the theme: “New Voices: Media Freedom Helping to Transform Societies”. NCN also observed that the occasion this year takes place at an historic juncture in the history of Guyana since for the first time the combined opposition has cut the subvention to NCN and the Government Information Agency (GINA), “reducing the opportunities for the development of media in Guyana and restricting the number of jobs available to young media workers in Guyana.”
NCN contended that no one can dispute that most of the professional journalists and media workers in Guyana were able to hone their skills and develop as professionals through their early employment in the Government-owned media operations.
According to NCN, however, it is regrettable that “a large proportion of these jobs will be lost to future generations of journalists simply because media workers in Guyana are being used as bargaining chips by an insensitive opposition who make no apology for what they term as collateral damage.”
More importantly, NCN said, it does not appear that the “Parliamentary opposition had analysed and examined the impact of their actions as there is a real possibility that Guyanese would be denied services and broadcast of popular programmes, international sporting events such as cricket, football and Olympics and opportunities lost for the showcasing of our culture, talent and entrepreneurial enterprises.”
Meanwhile, censuring the private media, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and the Guyana Press Association (GPA), NCN declared that “what is even more regrettable is that the lives and jobs of journalists and media workers on World Press Freedom Day 2012 are being curtailed while the private media, the Guyana Human Rights Association, and the Guyana Press Association refuse to speak out in support of these professionals.”
“Their silence can only be regarded as support for a dastardly act as the opposition moves to muzzle the voice of the Government through withholding the subventions of GINA and NCN,” NCN charged.
NCN further noted that “the elimination of media jobs” is also a concern for the labour movement and “we commend the unions of FITUG for their condemnation of the loss of jobs in their Labour Day messages.”
However, NCN decried the actions of GPSU President Patrick Yarde “for his defence of the budget cuts which will result in a reduction of job opportunities for the youths of Guyana.”
“The stand taken by the GPSU is reminiscent of the role of that trade union during our days of dictatorship which illustrated their tendency to hypocritically support their true masters. How sad it is that a Trade Union in Guyana can find the wherewithal to justify and support the loss of jobs and the reduction of our national workforce,” NCN said.
In the meantime, NCN said that their workers are calling “on all responsible members of this noble profession and civic society to condemn this move to muzzle the press and take us back to the days when freedom of the press in Guyana was nonexistent.”
NCN said further that in Guyana there has been much hard work over the years to “emerge from the dark days of dictatorship and restrictions on the freedom of information (and an almost total lack of press freedom).”
NCN acknowledged that Guyanese “live in a society that receives a wide variety of views from four daily newspapers, nineteen television stations, satellite and cable television services and unrestricted access to the internet.”
In that light, NCN concluded that Guyanese “are fortunate to have a government which is planning to make over 70% of our population computer literate by the provision of laptops and internet access through the OLPF and E-Governance programmes.”
NCN also noted the sentiments of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and joined with them in condemning the killing of 62 journalists who died as a result of their work, and also echoed their call to remember these journalists and these crimes which should not remain unpunished.
“We also feel strongly that media workers need the protection of governments and civic society as the new media, facilitated by greater access to the worldwide web, moves online thus producing more online journalists, including bloggers, who are being harassed, attacked, and killed for their work globally,” NCN added.
