The withdrawal of ministry advertisements from this newspaper by GINA started in November 2006. After failing for two months to get an explanation from Dr Prem Misir we went public on this issue in January this year. A public debate on the matter has since developed and we wish at this stage to make our position quite clear.
First, we are convinced beyond a shadow of doubt on the evidence available that this was a purely political decision which followed a number of intemperate attacks on this newspaper by the government, in particular President Jagdeo, which started at the time of the election campaign and continued after the elections. This political decision was communicated to the Government Information Agency (GINA) which places ministry ads. That is our position on this issue.
This cannot be a business decision as GINA and the government have since claimed for the following reasons. First, neither GINA nor the government know the audited circulation of the three newspapers. There is a good reason for that and that is that to the best of our knowledge neither the Chronicle nor the Kaieteur News have their circulation professionally audited on a regular basis or at all. Any information the government may have acquired is therefore anecdotal and unscientific. The audited circulation of this newspaper for the year 2006 was 13,555 and for Sunday Stabroek 24,908. Based on `informal’ data we believe this to be more than double the circulation of the Daily and Sunday Chronicle respectively. It may be somewhat below the print figures of the Kaieteur News as distinct from the paid, audited circulation of that newspaper after returns from vendors and distributors are taken into account. The circulation of the Mirror newspaper is negligible.
On a business basis neither the Chronicle nor the Mirror should receive a sizeable share of government advertisements. Moreover, the Stabroek News is the newspaper of record in Guyana and has the ideal target audience for the kind of advertisements placed by ministries and state corporations. Any responsible advertising agency would take that into account. On the basis of a business decision the Stabroek News should receive a substantial share of government advertisements.
The recent fiasco with the withdrawal of ads by the Guyana Sugar Corporation and the Guyana Power and Light made the position even more clear. In these cases, a known political functionary intervened directly, bypassing top management and the boards of directors and gave `instructions’ that the ads be withdrawn.
We repeat, this is a naked attack on this newspaper and an assault on press freedom. The claim that it is a business decision is transparently false and fools no one. We will continue to fight this improper use of taxpayers’ funds and this attack on the free press by all lawful means available.
