Dear Editor,
I’m at lost and perplexed by the conduct of Kaieteur News to which I have been a regular contributor for many years over the manner in which it has unceremoniously terminated publishing my letters. Have I violated a sacred principle or broken any rule? Has there been a change, a new approach that governs on what basis letters submitted are selected to be published, or have I simply gone against the grain? I wrote to them some time back seeking answers to some of these questions, but they have not extended to me the courtesy of a reply.
Now I’m fully aware of Stabroek News’ stated policy which they have time and again expressed with regard to letters which have already been printed in other dailies ‒ though this has not been adhered
to with precision ‒ and for all the tea in China I, like many others, cannot to this day figure out the rationale behind this. But as they are won’t to say, “our prerogative.” But good heavens! Look how unfair,
that many important and wonderful letters are denied diehard SN-only readers simply because those letters were published before somewhere. Oh yeah! It is not the style of the Stabroek News to carry poems in their letter columns but they do fly the rule for special ones ‒ no sweat.
I can well remember when I wrote a letter of disapproval about this particular stand by SN, and the Kaieteur News publisher himself endorsed it (I still have that letter).
And so this is what has me pondering. If there is no change in the Kaieteur News scheme of things, no shift in policy, no violation of its cardinal rules on my part, and assuming that the letters I submit are of some substance and worthy of publishing, then why on God’s earth has the Kaieteur News suddenly without rhyme or reason ceased printing my letters?
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
