Dear Editor,
I read the Government of Guyana’s call for the release of the Al Jazeera journalists jailed by Egypt with a mixture of sadness, amusement, outrage and revulsion. Now before I proceed, let me make it pellucidly clear that I consider the actions of the Egyptian Government to be absolutely atrocious, and a flagrant violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These journalists are clearly being punished for daring to expose the growing political atrocities in Egypt, and this has not been in keeping with the wishes of the ruling junta.
Their plight conjures up déjà vu recollections in my mind of a bitter and excruciatingly painful experience not so very long ago in Guyana, and not so very dissimilar. In fact, this has forced me to elaborate on the emotions that overwhelmed me after reading a statement barefacedly and with enormous pomposity issued by the communist-leaning Government of Guyana in an ostensible condemnation of the actions of the Egyptian junta. I found it to be quite revolting that the current Government of Guyana, after engaging in a variety of cruel and undemocratic actions designed to constrict and stifle press freedom in Guyana, could summon up the hubris to shamelessly beat on its chest in public and proclaim, “The Government of Guyana believes that freedom of the press is essential for the full and effective exercise of freedom of expression and an indispensable instrument for the functioning of representative democracy, through which individuals exercise their right to receive, impart and seek information.”
“Ah man, this government has no shame,” I exclaimed silently; “can the PPP regime really be serious?” We now have to wonder whether they had warehoused these noble sentiments when they were using state advertisements as a cudgel to cunningly silence private media entities in Guyana because they dared to adhere to the principle that the individual has a right to receive, impart and seek information. Yet, these noble sentiments are absent in the government’s monopolizing of the state-owned media, using it exclusively for the dissemination of partisan political propaganda. By what acrobatic tumbling of reasoning, what fractured understanding of rationality, can any individual, much less a national government, conclude that those actions and others of like strain, are consistent with Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This was reiterated in the Windhoek Declaration of 1991, that “Consistent with article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the establishment, maintenance and fostering of an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy in a nation, and for economic development. By an independent press, we mean a press independent from governmental, political or economic control or from control of materials and infrastructure essential for the production and dissemination of newspapers, magazines and periodicals. By a pluralistic press, we mean the end of monopolies of any kind and the existence of the greatest possible number of newspapers, magazines and periodicals reflecting the widest possible range of opinion within the community.”
Editor, I can empathise with the plight of the Al Jazeera journalists because I experienced like incarceration for over five years in solitary confinement on a trumped up treason charge for daring to exercise my citizen’s right to critique the manner in which my country was being managed. And there are many others in the journalism and activism arena in Guyana who have experienced physical and non-physical trauma for simply exercising their constitutional and universal rights of free speech and assembly. These experiences include, but are not limited to, being banned from press conferences, being assaulted physically including with miasmic substances, receiving death threats, experiencing discrimination and marginalization from the refusal to bend and genuflect obsequiously and, of course, my own political imprisonment. So yes, Editor, I can empathize with the experience the of Al Jazeera journalists imprisoned in Egypt. I know how they feel from being unjustly incarcerated, forced away from their families, not seeing their kids, because the suffering and pain of being under such state constriction when one’s eldest son dies will always bring about sympathy and empathy for those imprisoned under similar conditions. But the most important and poignant point that has to be made here is that the Government of Guyana insults the intelligence and the retention capacity of the public and the independent press, when it argues for the rights of people distances away, while abrogating the very rights for citizens within the national geography that it governs.
Yours faithfully,
Mark A Benschop
