Kaieteur News (KN) publisher Glenn Lall yesterday lodged a complaint with police against Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall, accusing him of threatening him and suggesting that the newspaper’s employees will be targeted.
The complaint was in part prompted by a recording of Nandlall, which Lall, in the company of his attorney Khemraj Ramjattan, turned over to police when he made the report at the force’s Eve Leary headquarters yesterday afternoon. Lall later told reporters that he was fearful for his life along with the lives of his family members and employees.
Hours after the complaint was made, the government issued a statement in which it said it was standing by Nandlall, while claiming that his private conversation with a reporter was being distorted for “dastardly” purposes.
The recording, between Nandlall and Leonard Gildarie, a senior reporter of Kaieteur News, is a 19-minute-long phone conversation which seemed to have been sparked by a number of reports published in KN about Nandlall’s relatives.
According to the AG, the KN owner “feels that he is above the law” and has resorted to using the daily newspaper “as a weapon.”
“Everybody doesn’t have a newspaper to use as a weapon,” Nandlall said. He continued, “I told Adam [Adam Harris, KN editor], I said, ‘Adam, people got weapons, right. They ain’t got newspaper to use as a weapon; they got weapons. And when you continue to attack people like that and they have no way of responding they will just walk with they weapon into that same [expletive] Saffon Street office and wha’ come shall do.”
He then began, “And innocent…” before changing course and continuing, “Peter will have to pay for [expletive] Paul in that way. I tell you, honestly, man to man that will happen soon.” He further advised the reporter to “get out of deh,” the quicker, the better.
Earlier this month, KN had published an article on a remigrant uncle of the AG, Kamal Mangal, over which Mangal obtained an interim injunction against Harris, Lall and the Kaieteur News yesterday.
The recorded conversation opened with Nandlall accusing the reporter of “misquoting” his relative in the article and the AG is heard blasting Lall for making the matter “personal.” From all indications, Nandlall thinks that Lall has gone too far.
“It’s a lot of powerful people that this man…” he begins before trailing off. He continues, “Nobody didn’t used to bother with he before, right, and he used to get through with all he was publishing but people get sensitive now.”
Nandlall further said, “This man is lynching my family for no reason at all, no reason at all; just because he want to get at me. And why he want to get at me? Because he believes I can withdraw these charges against he; but I can’t!…nobody is above the law, boss…Whether you feel you get charged wrongfully or not, you can’t use your newspaper to drag a set of [expletive] innocent people into this.”
The outbursts went on, “There’s a simple way of dealing with the situation, you know. I tell Glenn already; he knows my capacity and I know his; Me ain’t gotta go court every day and issue press statements. Me ain’t got to resort to those methods. There are far more effective methods to which I can resort.”
After nearly 12 minutes of expletive-filled rants from the AG, the reporter questioned, “So wha’ you want me to do?” Nandlall in turn responded, “My first advice to you is to move out of there. It’s a dangerous [expletive] place to work…I’m telling you: read between the lines.”
‘Threats’
In his statement to the police, Lall explained that earlier this month he received a number of phone calls from various persons warning him of plots against his life. These persons, Lall said, told him to be “extremely, extremely careful” in his daily movements and suggested that he “beef up” his security.
“One caller said, ‘there is a plot to shoot-up your building and make it look like a robbery’…I took that information quite serious and began to operate more cautiously. I was reliably informed, days after, that a plot to execute me was hatched by senior government functionaries and that people are being approached to carry out the dastardly act,” Lall said in his statement. “Some of these I was hoping was not true,” an emotional Lall told reporters yesterday.
He went on, “On Saturday evening, last, all of these threats seemed to have been vindicated by a conversation between Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall and one of my senior reporters. The utterances therein were disturbing to say the least. I am very concerned because it came from high quarters. I now clearly understand what those people have been warning me about.”
He further expressed the belief that, based on the content of the recording, there is a “criminal conspiracy” underway which ought to be investigated.
Lall’s lawyer Ramjattan expressed similar concerns and deemed the threats in the recording as an act of “state terrorism,” while calling for a full investigation to be launched into the report.
“It is clear from the tape, that this destruction of Kaieteur News and its proprietor resulting from serious clashes between a number of people in the political scene and also the GRA level and all of that has heightened to the level now whereby the powers of the state want to do destruction to a dissident and a very famous one in Guyana,” Ramjattan said.
‘Manipulation’
After hours of promises from Nandlall that a press release would be sent on the matter, the Government of Guyana issued one late last night and emphasised that it condemned “in the strongest possible language the despicable act of a national newspaper to distort and manipulate a private conversation of a government minister, whose conversation was illegally recorded, and distorted, and broadcast.”
At no point during the release did the government deny that the voice on the recording belonged to Nandlall; instead, the government blasted the daily newspaper and accused it of using the power of mass media to “manipulate public opinion.”
“The Kaieteur News has sustained an intensive, vicious attack on members of the Government of Guyana, using its media power to distort even private conversations that it illegally records,” the government charged.
It continued, “It is abhorrent that someone would be so indecent and immoral to manipulate a loose, private conversation in such a dastardly way.”
According to the government, the said manipulation can be “easily recognized” in the fact that, on many instances, the reporter’s voice on the other end of the conversation was inaudible.
“Fortunately, the government’s priorities will continue to be on the further development of Guyana and our people,” the release said. “The government will not be distracted from this agenda by Kaieteur News or anyone else.”
Solidarity
Meanwhile, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) yesterday said it stood in solidarity with Kaieteur News and expressed alarm at the statements made in the recording.
“The GPA is shocked that these reckless, irresponsible and outrageous statements could be made by the sitting Attorney General of Guyana and calls on the Government of Guyana to condemn the AG’s remarks, ask him to withdraw them in light of these revelations,” GPA said in a release.
The GPA further called on the police force to thoroughly investigate the complaints made by Lall before urging all media workers to “remain vigilant.”
“Journalists in Guyana should be free to practice their profession in an environment free of fear, intimidation and threats,” the GPA maintained.
