Dear Editor,
We need to respond to Derek Sampson’s misinformed letter in Stabroek News of July 17, 2008. Sampson presents a case of media harassment by the Government of Guyana, and cites these cases: withdrawal of advertisements from Stabroek News; the ‘April 2008’ suspension of CNS 6TV; and now the declaration of Gordon Moseley as persona non grata.
Stabroek News’ limited circulation and limited reach drove the Government Information Agency (GINA) to withdraw the placement of advertisements from that newspaper.
GINA’s policy on the placement of advertisements is as follows: place newspaper advertisements in the state media plus one private media house.
And so in order to comply with the policy of placing advertisements in only one private newspaper, GINA made a business decision to focus its commercials mainly toward the Kaieteur News, certainly not a pro-government newspaper. The Guyana Chronicle is the state’s newspaper, not a private newspaper.
GINA’s policy decision complied with economic factors. And this kind of competition and the free market should further refine press freedom; at least, so say the advocates of capitalism.
The ‘April 2008’ suspension of CNS 6 from transmitting and the ensuing enforcement of that suspension were due to its non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the National Frequency Management Unit’s (NFMU) licensing conditions. The suspension once again brought into play intentional confusion between freedom of speech and compliance with licensing conditions.
The CNSTV 4-month suspension issue attracted wide publicity and titillated the imaginations of the opposition forces and others. Any threat to kill any president of any country is more than serious, and a caller on the CNSTV ‘Voice of the People’ made such a threat. The broadcaster on CNSTV acknowledged the difficulty presented by this caller, and so CNSTV, through this broadcast, violated the conditions of the licence as well as the law. Yet CNSTV effected three unedited rebroadcasts of this programme; the television station had sufficient time to edit out the ‘threat’; but failed to take corrective action.
Now, let’s move to the issue of the persona non grata status of Mr Gordon Moseley. Mr Moseley acquired persona non grata status at the Office of the President (OP) and State House as a direct result of reproachful and disrespectful comments on the Head of State in his letter to the press. He can continue to cover the President, but at events outside of the premises of OP and State House.
Indeed, Mr Moseley already recently covered the President at the Carifesta Secretariat. Freedom of the press is not absolute; and so there must be boundaries and limitations. There must be professionalism and a journalist code of conduct that is alien to Denis Chabrol of the Guyana Press Association.
Yours faithfully,
Prem Misir
Editor’s note
Dr Misir has reiterated the government position in relation to the withdrawal of state advertisements from Stabroek News which was given at the time the decision was made. However, at no point has the administration ever adduced evidence in support of its contentions regarding circulation, and it has also steadfastly resisted the proposals put forward by this newspaper to have the circulation of all the dailies audited by a Caribbean member of the Audit Bureau of Circul-ations. Only Stabroek News has audited circulation figures, and it is widely believed that the state paper has a low circulation. Furthermore, this newspaper also suggested that an independent regional advertising agency be retained to undertake a survey on the impact of advertisements in the three newspapers at the time, and to make recommendations as to which papers had the target audience for the kind of ads the government places. This suggestion too was rejected. Since the decision to withdraw the ads clearly had no economic foundation, the conclusion cannot be avoided that it was intended to punish this newspaper for its editorial line.
As it is, the government restored advertisements as suddenly as they had been withdrawn, with no accompanying explanation of any kind. Since the administration can be no better informed about comparative circulation figures than it was in 2006 and 2007, are we to infer that there has been a change of policy? If so, then Dr Misir owes it to the newspaper fraternity to explain what that new policy is.
Misr, please stop misrepresenting the facts and stop insulting people’s intelligence. Isn’t it enough that you have lost all credibility and respectability among decent Guyanese who are not fools enough to believe your shameless defense of Jagdeo’s attempt to stifle freedom of speech and muzzle the press?
You want to prove SN’s breath and reach, look at the amount of views their stories are getting online while KN is still to display their corresponding amount of views their paper is attracting. They quickly pulled their Blog Option either because they had noticed that they attracted comparitively very little discourse, and therefore not as wide an internet exposure as SN or your dear Jagdeo and company had a problem with the freedom of expression of the Bloggers and threatened KN.
Stop peddling untruths. We know the Jagdeo Administration well. There is nothing more you or anyone of it’s shameless defenders could tell us about them.
Respect yourself!
From:
Hélène-Marie Gosselin Director, UNESCO Office to the United Nations New York World Press Freedom Day May 3 2006.
“UNESCO strongly believes that freedom of expression and freedom of the press are central to building strong democracies, promoting civic participation and the rule of law, and encouraging human development and security. We also believe that protecting and furthering these fundamental human rights can help further another basic human right — the right to live free from poverty.”
“Media freedom is an indispensable cornerstone of a comprehensive and hopefully more effective international development strategy and we believe that it can help reduce the disheartening statistics that I just quoted. Freedom of expression serves as a trigger and catalyst for the realization of other basic human rights.”
http://www.un.org/events/pressday/2006/panelgosselin.htm
“Freedom of the press doesn’t only include the freedom of journalists (and, increasingly, bloggers) to publish information without fear of repercussions. It also includes the freedom to gather the information, as well as the freedom of the public to have access to the published information. This is enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
“Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
Reporters Without Borders 2007.
http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/human-rights-facts-21-free-press/
Why don’t Misir and others cite the particular portions of Mosley’s letters that were disrespectful. The president is not a King, and thus is not above reproach by any member of the citizenry.
These sycophants, regardless of any academic qualifications they may have attained, continue to exhibit the most obtuse and innane streams of reasonings imaginable. It is sad to acknowledge that this is a representation of the intellect making national decisions in our nation. May God help us.
Capitol news need to compile a dossier of its Antigua Presidential report, the Presidents response, its reporter Mosley’s letter, GINA’s explanation for the ban, and this letter from Misir, and present them before the international association of journalists for examination and maybe a C-SPAN forum deliberation. The silliness and arrogance of these people need to be exposed before the wider world. One eye man can only be king in a blind mans land.
if the president ask prem misir or any minister to jump in demerara river they would jump with no hesitation. these ministers don’t have visions, stamina, courage and supervision qualities.
It’s shameful and disgusting that a resonably intelligent person would defend the poistion of this regime. Don’t Misir have more important things to do but to defend the inexcusable actions of this regime? I guess not!
Misir do you ever wonder why caricom disrespects Guyanese?
It’s because of this regime’s behaviour… it’s abhorrent.
They are telling the Guyanese people if you can live under this dictatorship and accept that treatment… we “caricom” certainly don’t respect you.
This Misir dude is an ideologue of the worst kind, because he belives in defending people, their behavior and lies but not profound principles or scholarship. Existing facts and circumstances already in the public domain means nothing when it comes to defending certain individuals behavior. This sure sounds like qualifications for being a sleazy lawyer and not Guyana’s mouth piece.
The government’s sycophants and jesters always seem to confuse their audiences whenever they decide to defend the indefensible actions of their benefactors. Why does Prem Misir believe that he can convince the sensible reading public with his cow pasture arguments about the SN advertisement and the George Mosley issues? Does he really believe that the overwhelming majority of SN readers are head-in-the-sand card-carrying members of the PPP?
Prem Misir, get real.
Stop it Misir you are breaking my heart and insulting my intelligence.
Doesn’t anybody feel that Mr moseley’s tone of his release was rather aggressive and disrespectful, taking into consideration that he was referring to the PRESIDENT OF GUYANA?
I am certain that Mr Moseley, being the PROFESSIONAL that he is supposed to be could have toned his response better and probably achieved much more than being ultra agressive.
Wonder if he sent a letter about Enrico Woolford with similar venom if he would still be a Capitol News employee?
And its not as if he’s been banned from being a reporter. It’s just that his privelege to attend press conferences at OP has been removed.
Come on Guyanese press, you had a right to protest about the ads with SN and with CH6. But this thing with Moseley is not worth your time.
Ohhh but It is! It is worth our time!
And your dear Jagdeo could pretty much take to it the bank that we have already invested far less time in this Moseley ban than we should have originally when the story broke. Now we are awake and aware! Now your Jagdeo gets to be even more famous, or is it infamous than his ego could ever imagine!
Starting from way back before the 2006 elections, your dear Jagdeo has been making a name for himself. What if overseas Guyanese really start to highlight his misdeeds to the rest of the world? What if! What if! What if??????????!!!!!!!!
The president of Guyana is paid to serve the people of Guyana, not the other way around. Unless he forgets and thinks himself King, the press is always here to make certain that he remains there, in that role: A servant of the people!
Did you or your president think that he was ever more or beyond that? How presumptous of him….of you!