After not placing any state advertisements with Stabroek News (SN) for the month of October, 2019, the Department of Public Information (DPI) has gradually been increasing allocations and the figure for January was roughly 26% of the total number of ads placed with the daily newspapers.
While the increase was welcome, Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief (EiC) Anand Persaud yesterday said that allocation of state ads should not fall within the purview of DPI as it can be used as a political weapon against the media and press freedom. He said the newspaper will continue to monitor the situation.
For January this year, DPI placed around 7,180 column inches of ads with three of the four daily newspapers. The state-owned Guyana Chronicle was allocated 2,693 column inches (37.5%), the Kaieteur News 2,609 column inches (36.3%) and Stabroek News 1,878 (26.1%). It appears that no DPI ads were assigned to the Guyana Times for January.
For December 2019, 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, Octo-ber 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.
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 over the ads situation.
Further, the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) on December 27th called on the Guyana Government to review its current distribution practice for official advertising to ensure that neither Stabroek News nor any other media house “is adversely affected.”
The statement from IAPA followed a complaint lodged with it on December 23rd, 2019 by Stabroek News, citing the sharp reduction of state advertisements from DPI as constituting an attack by the government on press freedom.
In its statement, IAPA, a longstanding press advocacy group representing media organisations in South America, the Caribbean and North America, said that it had expressed concern to the Guyana Government regarding the complaint by Stabroek News that it had been targeted for its journalistic content.
IAPA said that in a communication sent to the Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, and the Director of the Department of Public Information, Imran Khan, it asked the government to review its current practice of distribution of official advertising.
The letter, signed by the president of the IAPA, Christopher Barnes, of the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner, and the president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Roberto Rock, of the Mexican portal La Silla Rota, stated as follows:
“On behalf of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), we wish to express our concern regarding the complaint of the Stabroek News of Guyana, one of our members, pertaining to discrimination in the distribution of official advertising in reprisal for its journalistic content.
“This practice, as outlined, is incompatible with the Declaration of Chapultepec, signed in 2002 by (then) President Bharrat Jagdeo, and represents a grotesque act of discrimination against the press to which IAPA always pays special attention. This form of censorship affects not only a publishing house and its journalists; it affects the society as a whole which is deprived of relevant information on the performance of government and elected officials.
“IAPA holds further that the application of discriminatory policies in the granting of official advertising can be construed as acts of corruption whereby public resources provided by citizens are used for the private interests of administrators, becoming a form of embezzlement of public funds. State advertising should be delivered with full transparency and technical criteria, equity and through efficient management of public resources.
“The Declaration of Chapultepec states that `the media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say’, and that `the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.’ These concepts also included in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“It is against this background that IAPA calls on the Guyanese Government, in the interest of preserving freedom of expression in the country, to review its current practice of distribution of official advertising so as to ensure that neither Stabroek News [nor] any other media house is adversely affected.”
The EiC noted that Stabroek News has had to make a difficult decision to raise the price of its daily edition from January 1st this year from $80 to $100 to counter the reduction in the volume of ads.
