After not placing any state ads with Stabroek News (SN) for the month of October and placing a small number in November, the Department of Public Information (DPI) increased its allocation to the newspaper in December.
While the increase was welcome, Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said that DPI continued to discriminate against the newspaper by allocating the lion’s share of state ads to the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and the Kaieteur News. This, he said, had been the trend since August this year when DPI found spurious excuses to drastically cut ads to the newspaper.
Persaud said that the arbitrary and inexplicable allocations by DPI – including the zero figure for October – underline how state agencies could be opaque in their dealings and used as a weapon against the media. Persaud said by discriminating against Stabroek News and shrinking ads placements, DPI and the government – continue to be in contravention of the press freedom Declaration of Chapultepec.
