Dear Editor,
The disturbing and toxic spectre of what is and what is not fake news has come back to haunt us. Actually, if truth be told, it never left our shores.
Fifty-five years ago the first manifestation of fake news about the then British Guiana was minted and peddled in (not by) the United States. During that period, the principal conveyors of fake news were the Evening Post, the Daily Chronicle, the Daily Argosy and the Guiana Graphic. This fake news was peddled to convince the then Kennedy administration in the US that British Guiana would become a second Cuba should independence be granted to the colony under the PPP, and that the PNC should be supported to take BG to independence. Fake news has been with us ever since that era.
To chronicle the litany of fake news that has been published throughout the annals of our country’s political history would be anathema to many. The good thing is that by dint of a long and difficult struggle Guyanese have managed to ensure that the basic tenets of a democracy prevail in our country so that views for and against any given issue can be found in the print, electronic and social media.
With the spectre of fake news rising to prominence once again, editorials, letters, press statements and op eds have already begun debating the issue in the local mainstream media. At the international level, the spectre is exemplified in the current war of words between Washington and Moscow.
There’s an old saying, ‘When America sneezes Latin America (and the Caribbean) catches a cold.’ A lot of sneezing, fake and otherwise, took place during the recent US elections campaign and, as is to be expected, our region has been infected with the fake news virus. Not so long ago the PPP General Secretary had accused a section of the media of consistently peddling fake news, and this triggered a back and forth on the merits and demerits of the issue. Now that fake news has become the flavour of the day, allegations and counter allegations might continue well into the future .
As far as the ruling coalition here on the local scene is concerned, opposition elements can make notes on their performance or non-performance ‒ it doesn’t matter. And though its cabinet and non- cabinet ministers may be perceived as trial balloons, the fact is APNU+AFC are nonetheless history’s actors now occupying State House and the Ministry of the Presidency.
The big question is, whether the authority and the capacity exists in Guyana to censor and/or suppress fake news.
In the battlefield of misinformation, the epistemological challenge is to determine what information is considered legitimate and to ensure the integrity of information irrespective of whether it passes through the print, electronic or social media.
Yours faithfully,
Clement J Rohee