Dear Editor,
‘CN Sharma to stand trial in High court for rape’ – this was a front page headline of the May 16 edition of the Guyana Times newspaper. By any stretch of imagination, this news cannot be considered not worthy of a front page headline. Yet neither the Kaieteur News nor Stabroek News carried a front page headline on CN Sharma’s committal to stand trial in the High Court for rape. This is in sharp contrast to when the late Henry Greene, former Com-missioner of Police was accused of raping a woman, note, not a child. These two newspapers had Mr Greene almost every day on their front pages, ridiculing him and the government, calling on him to resign, calling on the President to sack him. I am no fan or supporter of Mr Greene, but this is in sharp contrast with the position of these two newspapers on Mr Sharma, who has been committed to stand trial for an offence which is far more serious, the raping of an underage girl. The Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, has given almost no coverage to Mr Sharma’s committal. This exposes the hypocrisy of these two newspapers which always like to portray themselves as the yardstick of fairness and the sole occupiers and defenders of moral high ground in Guyana. It therefore begs the question – why the deafening silence of these two newspapers?
It is no secret that the PNCR is on record of saying that it is concerned about the prevalence of sexual violence against women and children in Guyana and has been calling on the government and police to act decisively. It is no secret that Mr Sharma has been accused of raping an underage girl.
It is also no secret that Mr Sharma is the leader of the Justice for All Party, a key partner in the PNCR-led APNU opposition coalition and whose parliamentary representative is no other than a son of the accused, Mr Jaipaul Sharma.
Why is Mr CN Sharma enjoying this privileged treatment from the opposition aligned media? Why are organisations such as Red Thread and Help and Shelter not calling for APNU to dump the Justice for All Party? Where is the voice of Ms Deborah Backer and the women’s arm of the PNC? APNU must dump the Justice for All Party.
Yours faithfully,
Sundar Nauth
Editor’s note
What follows applies to Stabroek News alone; we are not responsible for any other entity.
1. Mr Sharma’s committal to stand trial is the end of the Preliminary Inquiry process which took a very long time to complete. We did give Mr Sharma’s case a great deal of coverage, including front-page coverage when he was charged and made his initial sequence of appearances in the Magistrate’s Court. We also covered his committal, although not on the front page as it had been reported on by another newspaper the day before. It was, however, the lead news item on our website the day before it appeared in our print edition.
Furthermore, in respect of some of Mr Nauth’s remarks, it should be noted that once someone has been charged with an offence, we are not allowed to comment on the case lest it be deemed prejudicial.
2. The late Mr Greene had not been charged with an offence, in addition to which he held public office as Commissioner of Police, and was therefore subject to the rules and conventions governing that position. Mr Sharma does not hold public office in any capacity. Furthermore, there was nothing on our front pages whereby we ridiculed the late Mr Greene, or called on him to resign, or for the President to dismiss him. Our editorial positions are not found in our reportage; they are located on Page 6 of our paper under the rubric ‘Editorial,’ and any comment we considered it appropriate to make on Mr Greene’s case was ex-pressed there.
