After not placing any state ads with Stabroek News (SN) for the month of October, the Department of Public Information (DPI) placed a small number in November but the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief (EiC) Anand Persaud maintains that the fundamental issue of the attempt to muzzle the free press by the Guyana Government remains unresolved.
DPI instituted a radical cut in state ads to Stabroek News in September, October and now November after the newspaper had temporarily stopped accepting the placement of ads because of a significant outstanding debt of over $22 million. After DPI substantially reduced its debt, Stabroek News invited it to resume advertising normally for the month of August but this did not occur.
Stabroek News’s contention has been that DPI slashed ads to punish the newspaper for its forthright reporting on the government and that this was in flagrant violation of the Inter-American press freedom Declaration of Chapultepec. DPI’s argument has been that the newspaper invited the cutoff by ceasing the acceptance of DPI ads in May. DPI has, however, given other conflicting explanations and President David Granger later said that “fairness” of media houses should be a determinant in the placing of state ads.
