Press workers are free to create a secondary association to advocate for their rights and work in the media, Minister of Public Affairs Kwame McCoy said on Wednesday, emphasising that freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution and allows for such.
Addressing press workers on the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, at a reception organised by the Guyana Press Association (GPA), McCoy sought to question the GPA’s role and representation of press workers. He said objections from the GPA to any attempt to establish a new organisation implied that the GPA and sections of the fraternity felt they hold the exclusive domain of the fourth estate.
McCoy’s comments were in response to the GPA’s concern over “creeping intolerance to media” highlighted in its World Press Freedom Day statement.
“This year’s World Press Freedom Day is being observed at a time when there appears to be a creeping intolerance to media that seek answers especially from the political directorates across Guyana’s major political divide,” the GPA said.
The minister said he was unaware of any intolerance, before claiming that many media workers feel unrepresented and unsupported by the association, which is the oldest press body in the Caribbean. According to McCoy, he has received numerous complaints of journalists being shunned and not granted press passes. He asked if that should be a cause for concern. The minister added that state media workers feel the most unrepresented, as they are not allowed to join the GPA.
However, the GPA does not restrict any media workers from joining the association once they meet the criteria.
GPA’s President Nazima Raghubir in her address said the sitting government was evidently coercing media workers to engage in practices that are inimical to the Guyana Press Association at the altar of political expediency. There had been failed attempts in the past to do so through the partisan Union of Guyanese Journalists (UGJ).
“Today, we see renewed efforts by the sitting government to use its leverage in the state media and its aligned privately-owned media to violate the inalienable right to freedom of association as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of Guyana,” she said.
Raghubir further pointed out that the integrity of journalism will continue to be under threat in Guyana not merely because of partisan interests, but because everyone who disseminates clearly partisan, and unverifiable content that passes off as interviews or discussions self-classify and hold themselves out as journalists.
Noting that international bodies are looking on, she said the government has embarked on a two-pronged strategy of using its leverage and pressure on media workers in the state media and sympathetic privately-owned media to take over the GPA, and if that fails, to form what it sees as a parallel organisation.
“The GPA is of the clear and unambiguous position that the government’s sole interest is to control the narrative of the reality of the Guyanese media landscape locally, regionally and internationally.”
Meanwhile, at a gala reception organised by McCoy’s ministry at the Pegasus Hotel, the minister said the government continues to facilitate the rights of the media.
According to a DPI report, McCoy pledged that the administration will not involve itself in behaviours that would endanger the lives of journalists, since they play an integral role in advancing the government’s agenda and society as a whole.
“My friends, you can rest assured that this People’s Progressive Party/Civic government will always be a friend of the media, particularly as it comes to the point of being able to uphold the protection and the safety of our journalists. We will always be there and we will do everything to ensure that is never interfered with,” he said.
He further pointed out that the government remains open to interacting and engaging with the media. “We take phone calls. We answer questions. We’re at press conferences. We’re at other events, and we don’t dodge. We don’t hide from the media because we know that you are playing an important role by pursuing us, and seeking answers and wanting information to be able to share with the public for the public good,” he added.
