Dear Editor,
It is impossible for news agencies to report on every event in an area.  This is one reason why they selectively choose which stories to report.  Taking that into consideration, one cannot depend on news stories as a reliable source for compiling data for research.  They selectively pick and choose what to cover and reports may be slanted to achieve a particular purpose.

One incident that I wish to highlight is the case of the missing aircraft in Guyana.  The aircraft was missing for just over two weeks in Guyana’s jungle.  We must try to understand that Guyana is a country almost the size of Britain and its jungle is largely untouched. Termination of the search was prominently captioned in all the major daily papers on the front page, as if the decision to terminate was wrong. It should be noted that there are more positive things taking place in our country that need to be reported.

Similarly, take the American billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who was only confirmed dead in September 2008 more than a year after he disappeared over the Nevada desert. The search was called off a month after his disappearance. Despite the access to the most technologically advanced search and rescue equipment, it took the Americans one year later to locate the wreckage and the body of Mr Fossett.

Guyana’s dense and largely inaccessible jungle makes it difficult to navigate. Minister Robeson Benn stated that the search and rescue team had done everything possible to locate the victims; and for this reason, the government should be commended for their efforts in conjunction with others.

Lastly, I must suggest that one solution in media reporting would be to give equal weight to all facts.  It appears that the media is very prone to selective inclusion when it comes to their reporting on incidents.
Yours faithfully,
Safraz Shadood

Editor’s note
Minister Robeson Benn held a press conference where he told the media that the search for the missing plane had been called off. There was nothing in this newspaper’s headline or the story which followed which carried any implication about whether the search should have been called off or not; it was simply straight reporting of what the Minister and Director of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority Zulfikar Mohamed said at the briefing. They both explained the difficulties encountered in locating the missing aircraft, comments which we carried in full.