Ms Teixeira needs to understand that the state media are owned by the people

Dear Editor,
Today one can easily tell that the popularity and intellectual fortitude of the PPP is rapidly slipping away.  The most current example of this is the minority PPP regime chief whip in Parliament, Ms. Gail Teixeira who in response to the leader of the opposition, David Granger about GINA not covering the views of the opposition accurately in Parliament had another mental meltdown and totally missed the concern of Mr. Granger. For the record, Mr. Granger was enquiring about GINA, check the Hansard Ms. Teixeira.  He was not talking about Stabroek News or Kaieteur News.  Mr. Granger clearly said “In the opposition we were quite distressed about the content and the quality and the character of reports of the budget on the first day Tuesday particularly by the Government News Agency (Government Information Agency).”

Thus Ms. Teixeira’s response was absolutely uncalled for and should be rejected for its absurdity.  Ms. Teixeira was cited as referring instead to a “perceived lack of balance in the privately-owned newspapers and new media”. She said “The government has long held that the volume of “anti-government” reports emanating from the “opposition media” warranted the state media coverage heavily slanted in its favour since it needed to get word out about its policies and programmes.”
Talk about apples and oranges!

The taxpayers do not fund the private media with tax dollars and thus the taxpayers have limited influence over their editorial policy.   However the State media is owned by the people, not the PPP or Ms. Teixeira and thus must have an editorial policy that serves all Guyanese especially those who voted for the majority in the opposition and thus their parliamentary representative have a right to be heard on the State media.

But this abuse of the State Media by the PPP is naked political opportunism and vindictiveness of the cabal in power.  They continue to use other people’s money as if their grandfathers left them a trust fund to finance all their wicked propaganda.

Well thank you Mr. Granger for exposing NCN and GINA again and remember now – zero for NCN, GINA and the Chronicle of Lies in the 2013 National Budget; let Freedom House pay their expenses since they are the mouthpieces of Freedom House.

The Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal’s verbal attacks on the independent media over the years are obvious attempts to intimidate the journalists into self-censorship. Their vitriolic and tyrannical statements often fuel rage among their unthinking supporters who then pose a threat to journalists doing their jobs. But we have news for the regime; they cannot and will not bully the private media into submission.

Given the pompousness displayed by the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal especially when they are being exposed by the media for corruption, the high crime rate and blatant disrespect for the people, we expected such an infantile response from the PPP chief whip.
We demand she withdraw this foolish statement.

Yours faithfully,
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh