A Stabroek News reporter was yesterday prevented from covering the statutory meeting at the Regional Democratic Council of Region Three and was asked “who invited you…”
The reporter who was not expecting such a response had confidently walked into the building and asked for directions to where the meeting was being held.
She was directed first to the secretary of the Regional Executive Officer who in turn asked her to speak with the chairman’s secretary.
The woman told the reporter to hold on and she went into a room. Shortly after a man walked out and asked “who invited you to the meeting.”
The reporter inquired who he was and he told her he was the vice chairman. She responded that she did not know she was supposed to be invited because reporters normally cover RDC meeting in other regions.
The vice chairman said he is not concerned with that but they have never had a reporter covering their meetings. The chairman, Julius Faerber was not there at the time.
The reporter then said she was making a call and he told her to “call whoever you want.”
It happened that the meeting was scheduled to start at 10:30 am but this reporter was there at 9:30.
She left and waited outside for a long time until she noticed the chairman driving into the compound and she approached him and told him what happened.
He politely said he was sorry and confirmed that reporters never covered their meetings. But when he was told this is not the case with RDC meetings in other regions, he said the newspaper should have given him at least three days’ notice.
This reporter later spoke to an APNU councillor from another region and he expressed outrage at what happened.
He lamented that reporters should not be prevented from covering the meetings because the “public matters are being discussed and it should be no secret.”
Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said it was preposterous that the Region Three administration would seek to bar reporters from covering their meetings. He said the decision makers in the region seem to be caught in a Stalinist time warp.
Persaud said that Faerber should acquaint himself with Article 71 of the Constitution which says that “Local Government is a vital aspect of democracy and shall be organised so as to involve as many people as possible in the task of managing and developing the communities in which they live”.
