Amitabh Sharma, Features Coordinator

Editor of the Stabroek News, a newspaper in Guyana, Anand Persaud, talks about the government's withdrawal of advertisements from the newspaper in St. Andrew last week. At right is Gary Allen, deputy managing director of the RJR Group. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer.

In the information age, media houses have played a key role in bonding people through the written word, informing and at the same time maintaining checks and balances.

The pen is mightier than the sword, it is said but, according to Stabroek News editor Anand Persaud, the Guyanese government is going all out to prove this idiom wrong.

Stabroek News, Guyana's leading daily, is facing the ire of the government, which has withdrawn all advertisements since November 2006.

"This move was preceded by withering attacks by (Guyana) President Bharrat Jagdeo on the editor-in-chief of the newspaper," said Mr. Persaud.

President Jagdeo, now in his second term, criticised the newspaper in public. "He accused us of supporting a third party," Mr. Persaud told The Gleaner last week while in Jamaica to attend a seminar on press freedom and corruption prevention. "This was a speech that he made during his election campaign."

The advertising cut-off came without any official indication from the government information agency which handles all state advertising.

"The move was arbitrary and had no basis and, a year after the withdrawal, the government has no case and no explanation," said Mr. Persaud.

Advertisements

The Guyanese government in January tried to justify its move, stating that the advertisements have been withdrawn as Stabroek News was no longer the largest circulated newspaper of the island. The state accused the newspaper of deviating from the issue.

"The issue has nothing to do with press freedom," quoted a Government of Guyana press release. "It pertains to economics and impact maximisation."

Mr. Persaud denied this claim, stating "our circulation is audited every month and, to the best of my knowledge, the circulation figures of the competition have not been professionally audited."

He added: "We proposed that the advertisements be distributed on the basis of audited circulation and the target audience, which has been ignored.

"This move is to penalise the newspaper for critical reporting." The resentment of the government started when we did a series of news stories raising questions on some of the government's initiatives."

He said the government's decision seemed to be a message to the daily that it should soften its stance, an action Stabroek News chose not to take.

President Jagdeo, meanwhile, is under pressure from various groups to rethink his own stance, but has refused to budge.

Director of the International Press Institute, Professor Johann P. Fritz has recommended that the issue be resolved amicably.

Crucial role

"The government must accept that the media has a crucial role to play," he said. "If present disagreement is allowed to continue, (it) could have a chilling effect on all media who receive government advertising in Guyana."

The Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) have also criticized the Jagdeo government for this move.

amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com