After not placing any state ads with Stabroek News (SN) for the month of October, the Department of Public Information (DPI) placed a small number in November but the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief (EiC) Anand Persaud maintains that the fundamental issue of the attempt to muzzle the free press by the Guyana Government remains unresolved.
DPI instituted a radical cut in state ads to Stabroek News in September, October and now November after the newspaper had temporarily stopped accepting the placement of ads because of a significant outstanding debt of over $22 million. After DPI substantially reduced its debt, Stabroek News invited it to resume advertising normally for the month of August but this did not occur.
Stabroek News’s contention has been that DPI slashed ads to punish the newspaper for its forthright reporting on the government and that this was in flagrant violation of the Inter-American press freedom Declaration of Chapultepec. DPI’s argument has been that the newspaper invited the cutoff by ceasing the acceptance of DPI ads in May. DPI has, however, given other conflicting explanations and President David Granger later said that “fairness” of media houses should be a determinant in the placing of state ads.
No explanation has been given by DPI for the ads placed in November though Stabroek News has learnt that some government agencies have pressed for their ads to be placed in this newspaper. For November, DPI placed roughly 5,023 column inches of advertisements with the four newspapers. The state-owned Guyana Chronicle accounted for 47.2% of this figure, the Kaieteur News 38.4%, Stabroek News 13.7% and the Guyana Times 0.5%.
Persaud said the small number of ads placed with SN for November was indicative of the continuing victimisation by the Guyana Government. Persaud said that prior to DPI’s cutoff of ads, SN was receiving roughly 21% of a larger volume of DPI ads that had been placed in May, 2019 and that the newspaper will continue its lobby for just treatment.
The EiC said the exposure by SN that it received zero ads in October had clearly put DPI and the government on the defensive. Persaud said that SN’s position was further buttressed by support from regional newspapers, the Trinidad Express and the Barbados Nation, which criticised the Guyana Government. Persaud noted that faced with the fact that zero ads had been placed for October, DPI then tried to save face by arguing that state ads had still been placed in SN for that month. Persaud, however, pointed out that those ads were never under the control of DPI but that various government agencies had always advertised directly with the newspaper and thankfully continued to do so.
The EIC said the placement of the November ads was likely an attempt to forestall the charge that the newspaper had been completely cut off by DPI. Persaud added that DPI’s conduct would have to be carefully watched as it has offered varying explanations and that President Granger’s intervention had raised even more questions.
Silent
Persaud pointed out that DPI had first been utterly silent on the cut in ads and it was only after the newspaper went public that DPI presented various explanations. Persaud noted that Guyana Publications Inc (GPI), publishers of Stabroek News, had written to the Director of Public Information Imran Khan on August 29th this year seeking an explanation for the severe reduction of ads. He never acknowledged receipt of the correspondence or replied. On September 16th, GPI wrote Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is in charge of DPI, seeking an explanation. There was no acknowledgement of the correspondence but a response, dated September 26th, was received by the newspaper on September 30th, a day after the SN published a story on the cutoff of ads. The reply from the PM merely said an explanation was being sought from DPI.
The EiC said in its public responses DPI has offered various excuses for the cut in ads. These included that DPI had to seek alternatives for advertising after SN stopped accepting placements in May and that a new system for placing state ads – which it never notified media houses of – had been implemented. Persaud argued that none of these explanations were credible and that the state ads placement figures for October and November do not lend to DPI’s claim that SN is on the rotation for these ads. Persaud said the state-owned newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle continues to receive the lion’s share of ads followed by Kaieteur News.
Persaud added that President Granger’s statement on November 1st, 2019 that “fairness” is an instrument for the placement of ads remains troubling.
The President had said during an interview on Kaieteur Radio, “There must be fairness. We believe that advertisements should be directed to the media houses based on their willingness to disseminate news fairly”. Persaud said any reasonable observer would construe the President’s statement to mean that favourable coverage of the government would be the determining factor in the placement of state ads.
Persaud said that SN will continue to argue its case against the press freedom attack locally and internationally. He said it is astounding that governing coalition partner, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has been silent on the attack on the free press. Persaud said that in 2006 state ads were withdrawn from SN because of the space the newspaper had given to the two principal AFC figures: Khemraj Ramjattan – currently its leader – and Raphael Trotman. Ironically, state ads to the newspaper have now been miniaturised by DPI which is headed by a member of the AFC.
Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says, in part, “…the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.”
Principle 10 says “No news medium nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth or criticising or denouncing the government”.
The Declaration had been signed in 2002 by then President Bharrat Jagdeo at a time when PM Nagamootoo was a PPP/C Parliamentarian.
Jagdeo on October 3rd this year said that his PPP/C administration “was wrong” to withdraw state advertising from Stabroek News in 2006.
