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.