As reported in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, the Department of Public Information (DPI) has drastically cut state advertising in Stabroek News without offering an explanation. For the month of September thus far, Stabroek News has received 168 column inches as compared with 8,537 column inches for the state-owned Guyana Chronicle, 6,923 column inches for the Kaieteur News and 432 column inches for the Guyana Times.
The move against Stabroek News followed an administrative decision it had taken in May to cease accepting placement of state advertising until a large outstanding amount had been paid off by DPI. When this outstanding balance was substantially reduced, Stabroek News advised DPI at the end of July that the normal placement of advertising could resume. This did not happen. Correspondence to the Director of Public Information, Imran Khan, who is in charge of DPI, seeking an explanation was not acknowledged or responded to. Subsequent correspondence to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who has responsibility for DPI, was not acknowledged or responded to.
In accordance with modern standards of governance, public authorities have an obligation to be transparent and to defend the positions they have taken particularly in relation to matters where taxpayers’ money, fairness and probity are in question. The silence by Messrs Nagamootoo and Khan speaks volumes. The numerous exchanges between DPI and Stabroek News since July over the placement of state advertisements could not have avoided their attention. Furthermore, several government agencies have been misled by DPI into believing that SN was not accepting their advertisements.
In the absence of any cogent explanation from DPI or the PM’s office, the ineluctable conclusion to be drawn is that a political decision has been taken to withdraw advertising from Stabroek News because of displeasure with the strong line taken by the newspaper against persistent transgressions of the Constitution of Guyana by the government in the aftermath of the passage of the December 21, 2018 motion of no confidence in Parliament.
No other explanation would be credible and this is probably why none has been proffered by DPI. The use of state advertising as a weapon places the government in direct contravention of the Inter-American press freedom Declaration of Chapultepec which was signed in 2002 by then President Jagdeo and while PM Nagamootoo was a PPP/C MP.
Principle 7 of the Declaration says in part ”…the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists”.
Principle 10 says “No news medium nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth or criticising or denouncing the government”.
History has repeated itself. In 2006 it was the Jagdeo administration which withdrew advertising to punish the newspaper. Then, it had been clear that the cutoff of advertising was retaliation for the space given by SN to the two leaders of the fledgling Alliance For Change, Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan, who in the irony of ironies, are senior members of the current government.
Despite there being no arguable grounds for the withdrawal of advertising, the then Government Information Agency (GINA) had at least in 2006 tried to present an argument. In a pernicious assault on press freedom, SN received no ads from GINA for 17 months and a concerted effort was made by the government to ensure that no ads were placed by state corporations etc. This is the road that the APNU+AFC government has now embarked upon. There will be consequences for it.
Lest it be thought that the government or APNU+AFC was doing SN a favour by placing ads with it, the public should be aware that state advertising is paid for with taxpayers’ dollars. It therefore behoves the government to spend taxpayers’ dollars in a fair, prudent and transparent manner. On what grounds for the month of September could 8,537 column inches justifiably have been given to the Guyana Chronicle compared to SN’s paltry 168 column inches?
As a media house with an unmatched record of fair and accurate reporting for 33 years, SN is entitled to a fair portion of state advertising and as has been argued since 2006 the process of allocation should not be in the hands of politicians because there is a real danger of political considerations getting in the way as in the extant case. The placing of state ads should be reposed with a professional advertising agency.
In 2011, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights described how state advertising should be handled.
“The States must establish procedures for the contracting and allocation of government advertising that reduce discretion and prevent suspicion of political favoritism in its distribution. Advertising funds must be allocated according to pre-established criteria that are clear, transparent, and objective. Government advertising must never be allocated by the States as a reward or punishment for the editorial and reporting content of the media. Such use must be explicitly penalized. Decision-making responsibility for placing and allocating government advertising must not lie solely in the hands of political staff; rather, public servants with specialized technical backgrounds in the field should also participate”.
Aside from being a blatant attack on press freedom, the withdrawal of ads by DPI also constitutes an assault on the working people of this country when one takes account of the 100 employees that have found good employment with the newspaper over the years of its existence. Stabroek News wears this latest assault on it as a badge of honour that affirms that it is discharging its duty to hold the government accountable for constitutional violations even at the peril of losing state advertising. It will not flinch or resile.
A larger point needs to be made about the conduct of the government. An embattled government that defies the constitution, the supreme law of the country, soon becomes uncaring of other violations. It becomes single-mindedly preoccupied with its ultimate goal – in this case preservation of office at all cost – and nothing else matters. Its targeting of Stabroek News may just be the starting.
