An opinion survey conducted last week by the New York-based North American Caribbean Teachers Associa-tion has found that people are overwhelmingly supportive of President Bharrat Jagdeo’s decision to resume the placement of state advertisements in the Stabroek News (SN).
The government withdrew state ads from SN from November 2006 to mid-April 2008. The president an-nounced earlier in the month that a decision had been taken to resume the placement of ads.
NACTA polled Guyanese for their views on this and other current issues interviewing 890 people (404 Indians, 276 Africans, 133 Mixed, 87 Others) to represent the demographic composition of the population. The poll was conducted last week. It was coordinated by Vishnu Bisram with the interviews conducted by himself and several other individuals.
According to the findings of the latest poll, only 7% of those interviewed oppose the resumption of state (government) ads to SN. They justify the withholding of state ads saying that SN has been too critical of and at times biased against the government in its reporting and editorial comments.
However, 82% of the respondents supported the government’s decision to resume ads to SN saying it is wrong to deny the paper ads because of its criticism of the government. Many of them say that withholding ads is against freedom of the press and there is no place for the politicizing of state ads in a democracy. They feel the government should never have withdrawn ads from SN, seeing it as an attempt to punish SN for its editorial criticism of the government. They feel no media should be punished for what it writes about government officials as long as it is within the law.
Those who support the resumption of ads do not view SN as an anti-government (anti-PPP) paper saying withholding ads is un-PPP like. Many view SN as a serious, objective newspaper that is run professionally and felt that there should be no reprisals against SN or any of the media for critiquing the government. Some of them felt that using ads as a weapon against the free press is bad governance and against the tradition of the ruling PPP/C which respondents noted had played a major role in defence of freedom of the press during the darkest days of authoritarian rule.
Eleven percent of the respondents offered no response to the question of whether they support the resumption of ads to SN.
In sum, generally speaking, the poll indicated that people welcomed President Jagdeo’s decision to resume ads to SN saying the President had made a wise decision that would put him in good grace with the population and boost his popularity.
They were pleased with Jagdeo for reversing a media decision that they viewed as a mistake.
The poll also questioned Guyanese about the four-month suspension of broadcasting of Channel 6 (CNS) TV. The findings will be released in a subsequent report, as will the findings on the other issues.
