Dear Editor,
Long before the advent of television in Guyana, radio has been a close companion of the average Guyanese citizen. This medium has been used and abused by successive governments over many years. After forty-one years of independence Guyana has one radio station, this is nothing any Guyanese should be proud of. As a matter of fact, we all should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing a few people to hold on to the monopoly of radio. Our country has an abundance of radio talent, so much so that we have Guyanese working at many radio stations across the Caribbean, in North America and in the United Kingdom. Many of those people I’m sure would love to make a contribution to the development of radio in Guyana but the government is holding on to radio with an iron fist and will not free it up. No journalist with a clear conscience would want to be part of any medium that tells its staff what to say, what to write and when to say what. Because of the system that has governed our only radio station, many of our experienced and professional radio broadcasters have opted to leave our shores to work in a more democratic environment or simply pursue a different profession.
