Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Barton Scotland postponed a ruling on whether or not a member of the media should be sanctioned for suggesting Attorney General Basil Williams had misled the National Assembly, despite urgings from Williams that he should rule then.
After hearing arguments from the Attorney General and PPP/C Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who was strongly opposed to sanctioning a member of the media, the Speaker observed, “All freedoms are subject to limitations.”
Williams accused Vanessa Narine of the online news agency Citizen’s Report of misleading the public through an inaccurate report that was published on its website on Tuesday in relation to the proceedings of the House during the consideration of the 2016 Budget estimates.
The AG averred that Narine had suggested he was misleading the National Assembly by alleging fraud without citing details of the fraud in his reply to a question raised by former Attorney General Anil Nandlall.
“It is a situation wherein, on answering a question posed by the Honourable member [Anil] Nandlall, the Attorney General said that he was able to prevent the government from being defrauded by refusing to accept an old vehicle that was being passed off as new vehicle,” he said, before going on to claim that the report was “deliberately libellous and calculated to deceive” since it did not include the response he had given.
He identified Narine as being one of those who was seated in facilities provided by the House in order to allow journalists to “accurately” give an account of proceedings.
“I’m asking that action be taken against this scandalous and wanton attempt. If you cannot take the facts in this House, then what you need to do is leave the House; you cannot take it on yourself to spread lies,” he said.
In addition to urging the Speaker to sanction Narine for her actions, the AG also requested that an apology be issued and the published report be corrected.
The AG’s statements were met with expressions of loud disagreement from members of the opposition before Teixeira rose in defence of Narine.
Voicing her disapproval of the AG’s position, Teixeira accused Williams of trying to “control or muzzle” the press of the country, and she emphasized the importance of freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
She noted that in the past, it was highly unusual for any member of parliament (MP), particularly one sitting on the government side to raise issues appearing in the media.
“As you know, when we [PPP/C] were in government, we were under attack by several hostile media, but we have never used the Parliament or the embarrassment of the reporters of those agencies sitting in the House in such as undignified way,” a clearly incensed Teixeira said.
She went on to observe, “Mr Speaker, we understand that any MP can come under scrutiny of any press in Guyana including the internet and there are recourses in the court and in the judiciary to deal with these matters. However, we are opposed on this side to any attempt to control or muzzle the press of this country and therefore we do not support the request of the Attorney General.”
Having heard both sides, the Speaker commented that, “all freedoms are subject to limitations… freedoms are always associated with obligations. Sometimes what we do is we emphasize the freedom and ignore the obligations that go with those freedoms; the press is also obliged to at least be truthful.”
He went on to express the view that the matter be left to be resolved at a later time, which prompted Williams to recommend that the Speaker make a ruling based on the precedent of Minister Keith Scott on a similar issue. However, the Speaker remained resolute about making a decision at a later date.
