By Rickey Singh

With the passing of David de Caires yesterday, regional media colleagues who had come to admire him as well as officials of regional institutions and friends lost no time in expressing their surprise and sadness at his death which they regard as a “tremendous loss” to Guyana and the Caribbean Commu-nity.

In Barbados, Sir Fred Gollop, speaking as Chairman of the regional media enterprise, One Caribbean Media, remembers him as “a man of letters, an intellectual, a lawyer, a distinguished publisher who fought passionately for the highest traditions of journalism…”

Stabroek News Editor in Chief and Chairman of the Board of Directors David de Caires (fourth right) with from left, former employees Steve Ninvalle, Orin Davidson, Miranda La Rose, de Caires’ son Brendan, Mike Da Silva, Desiree Jodah and Michelle Inasi. The group had just completed the Terry Fox run to raise funds for cancer research. (Stabroek News file photo/July 1999)

His last “struggle,” recalled Sir Fred, was with the Guyana Government over the withdrawal of state sector advertisements from the Stabroek News.
Harold Hoyte, who as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the Nation Publishing Company, had been intimately involved with him in various capacities, in the interest of fostering and defending press freedom, including in Trinidad and Tobago, recalled:

“David was an indefatigable fighter for press freedom and a gallant advocate of independent media… I served with him in various fora and developed a strong respect for his firmly held views on matters of principle…”

In the wider Caribbean, Secretary General of Cari-com, Edwin Carrington, reached by phone in Dominica, expressed shock and “profound sadness” at the passing of the Guyanese lawyer turned editor and publisher. He said de Caires’ death “is a tremendous loss not only to Guyana but our community in general… I was planning to meet with him shortly to discuss ideas for improved media coverage on Caricom…”