After not placing any state ads with Stabroek News (SN) for the month of October and placing a small number in November, the Department of Public Information (DPI) increased its allocation to the newspaper in December.
While the increase was welcome, Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said that DPI continued to discriminate against the newspaper by allocating the lion’s share of state ads to the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News. This, he said, had been the trend since August this year when DPI found spurious excuses to drastically cut ads to the newspaper.
Persaud said that the arbitrary and inexplicable allocations by DPI – including the zero figure for October – underline how state agencies could be opaque in their dealings and used as a weapon against the media. Persaud said by discriminating against Stabroek News and shrinking ads placements, DPI and the government – continue to be in contravention of the press freedom Declaration of Chapultepec.
The EiC noted that Stabroek News has since had to make a difficult decision to raise the price of its daily edition from $80 to $100 to counter the reduction in the volume of ads and the prospect that DPI could intensify its campaign against the newspaper.
For December, DPI placed roughly 5,585 column inches of ads with the four daily newspapers. The Guyana Chronicle accounted for 39% of this amount, the Kaieteur News 37.7%, Stabroek News 20.9% and the Guyana Times 2.2%.
DPI instituted a radical cut in state ads to Stabroek News in September, October and 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.
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.
Persaud said yesterday that Stabroek News would continue to lobby here and overseas against the conduct of the government in relation to the allocating of state ads.
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 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.
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”.
