President David Granger’s recent suggestion that the distribution of state advertisements to the media should be based on the type of coverage provided has drawn criticism from the Guyana Press Association (GPA), which says his remarks appear link the allocation of paid state advertising with favourable coverage of his administration.
The GPA’s criticism in turn has drawn the ire of the Ministry of the Presidency (MoTP), which accused the organisation of misrepresenting the president’s position and demanded a retraction and apology.
During an interview on November 1st on Kaieteur Radio, Granger said government advertisements should be directed to media houses that are willing to provide fair coverage on public events.
The president had been asked to provide his view on the Department of Public Information’s recent refusal to place ads with Stabroek News following a temporary halt on placements by the newspaper to allow for a settlement of a $22.1 million debt.
His response was: “There must be fairness. We believe that the advertisements should be directed to the media houses based on their willingness to disseminate news fairly.”
He added, “We need to have media houses which are fair and balanced. I do not believe that it is the right of any editor or any media house to … deliberately not report on public events out of bias…,” before stressing that “media houses…must all be given fair access to the advertisements of the State. It is a State resource. It is not a private resource.”
The public event he adverted to was the observance of the 175th Anniversary of Queen’s College, Granger’s alma mater where he gave a speech.
President Granger drew attention to a letter written by Mark Archer – who is the Communications Director in the Ministry of the Presidency – which accused Stabroek News of ignoring the event.
“My considered opinion is that Queen’s College has contributed immensely to the intelligentsia of Guyana and Stabroek News didn’t see it fit to carry an article about this,” the president stressed. He went on to say that he has evidence that this is not the first time that Stabroek News has done this as, according to him, the failure to cover important national events, including the president, is “habitual.”
In a statement issued yesterday, the GPA voiced its disappointment with Granger’s remarks and said the gist appears to be that the allocation of paid state advertising is contingent upon favourable coverage of his administration.
“We recognise no visible difference between this position and the problems encountered during the term of the previous government. It has always been our position, which is in keeping with international thinking on this matter, that State advertising should neither be employed as a form of reward nor as punishment for perceived media transgressions,” the statement noted.
The MoTP, however, has stressed that the president said “fair” coverage and by substituting “favourable” the GPA was “malicious” and “absurd”.
“At no time during the interview did President Granger say or imply that he was seeking favourable media coverage of his administration. The President said only that media coverage must be “fair and balanced”, both hallmarks of ethical journalism,” the ministry maintained in a statement, where it accused the GPA of deliberately misconstruing the president’s statement.
It added that the president during his numerous interactions with media practitioners over the years has always said that journalism, like any other profession, must be based on a sense of social responsibility and ethics.
Stressing that the definition of “fair” is unambiguous, impartial, honest, free from self-interest, prejudice or favouritism, the statement said President Granger stands by his call for fair coverage [and] the ministry is calling for an immediate retraction and apology from the GPA.
In an invited comment, GPA President Nazima Raghubir said, “We stand by our statement.”
The GPA statement also noted that President Granger said he does not support the withholding of ads and encouraged the government to examine how all media houses can benefit from such ads. “In this very critical time in Guyana, when all should be informed, media houses ought to be reminded of their need to provide the truth and fact based journalism. Editorial activism has its place but citizens’ right to be informed must always triumph,” the statement concluded.
Stabroek News’ Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud has said the president has introduced a new metric for assigning ads – “fairness” – which could be used as a tool to suppress outlets which didn’t report in a certain manner. He has also questioned which entity would serve as the arbiter of media fairness.
