Reports emanating from the Office of the Presidency indicated that several persons have had their contracts terminated for blogging and fictitious letter-writing in the print media on behalf of the then ruling party. These persons were paid by the Office of the Presidency, the National Communications Network (NCN) and the Government Information Agency (GINA) to engage in character assassinations and personal vilifications of persons who offered even the slightest criticisms of the Government. It has long been suspected that this was a State-sponsored act, as casual reading of the Guyana Chronicle and the bloggers’ section of the Stabroek News would suggest.
This column vehemently condemns this most despicable, morally depraved and unconscionable, indeed criminal act, and believes that it is not enough to terminate the contracts of these persons. Those responsible for hiring these persons, for authorizing payment and for allowing the State print media to be used to publicise venomous attacks on innocent people, using taxpayers’ funds, should also be held to account and their services also terminated. In addition,