Dear Editor,

I have been following with close interest what has been developing in the press between the Government News Agency and Stabroek News. I am appalled at GINA’s decision to pull all ads from the Stabroek News. This is a very undemocratic move by the Government of Guyana and it does not signal well for what is in store for this country under this regime.

I would like to go back a bit in the past. Prior to the first democratic elections in Guyana when the PPP had very few friends and when freedom of the press hardly existed, the Stabroek News braved that regime and called for free and fair elections. After the elections, and continuing over the years, the Stabroek News has become a very balanced newspaper reporting on the positives and negatives of both the opposition and the Government. It is how an independent, free press was supposed to operate.

I am surprised that the Government would take such open and drastic action against a media house in the wake of the upcoming cricket world cup and in the eyes of the entire Caribbean region and the world at large. It was publicized also that the GPL and Guysuco (state owned companies) have also pulled their ads from the newspaper. That I imagine was a direct instruction to the head of those two companies.

This is definitely a step in the wrong direction, and by this the government has signaled to the people of Guyana and its Caribbean neighbours that we are evolving as a communist nation. The people of Guyana should not accept this. Dr. Cheddi Jagan has fought against this tirelessly for decades and we cannot allow this country to return to such a State. We are a free people and we should fight to remain free at all costs.

I am awaiting the Caricom Secretariat and the rest of the Diplomatic Community to take a position on this very significant matter that can be the turning point for our country. I would also like to urge all Guyanese to lend tangible support for the Stabroek News at this time until this lawless and unjustified decision is reversed. We should all purchase two copies each of the Stabroek News from today and give the second copy to a friend or neighbour.

Yours faithfully,

M. Seepaul