Dear Editor,
I have learnt that Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes has indicated her intentions to take legal actions against the Stabroek News, Anand Goolsarran and Gail Teixeira for public comments they made about an apparent conflict of interest, where her company, Videomega Production received at least one contract from the government of which she is a serving minister.
Editor, this kind of backward approach by a public official is nothing short of an attempt to silence those who sought to expose wrongdoing that characterises the APNU+AFC government.
Minister Hughes is claiming that the she ceded her involvement in the company and the utterances of those I named above have hurt her reputation. But, if the minister wants to remove any doubt and clear her name, then the appropriate thing to do is to provide the public with documented evidence that she has handed over day to day management of the company to Russel Lancaster and others, she no longer benefits financially from Videomega Production and that she had no role to play in the company receiving contracts from the state.
I also challenge the minister to release her submissions to the Integrity Commission, which can be one of the simplest of ways to show she no longer benefits from the company.
To attempt to use the courts as a means to silence those who have reasons to believe there is indeed conflict of interest without first providing evidence that will vindicate the Minister, can only been seen as an attempt to deflect attention.
Yours faithfully,
Eddy Layne
