The Board of Directors of the state-owned Guyana National Newspapers Limited, which publishes the Guyana Chronicle, has made a decision to suspend the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief, Nigel Williams, for one week over an embarrassing photoshopped front page photograph of the President during the easter celebrations.

The photograph was doctored to showcase a racial balance of the children who had surrounded the President at the National Park, with the headline “unity in diversity”.  The Chronicle has published a public apology over the doctored front page photo.

The original photograph of the President’s walk about in the National Park had him surrounded by a group of Afro-Guyanese children as he raised a kite. One of the Afro-Guyanese children was edited out of the photo by the Chronicle and replaced by two Amerindian children.

An embarrassed Board of Directors called a meeting yesterday with the Chronicle editors and managers to get to the bottom of the doctored front page photograph.

According to sources close to the Chronicle, while Sunday Editor Neil Marks was the Editor in charge for that edition, he told the board that when he closed off the newspaper for the day, the doctored photograph was not part of the publication.

The original photograph

Reports suggest that a decision may have been made by the Editor-in-Chief after Marks had already closed off the newspapers to change the photograph. Although, Mr. Williams was not on duty on the particular day, he reportedly requested that the entire layout be sent to him before going to print.

Williams is an experienced journalist who last served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Guyana Times. Previously he worked as a senior reporter with the Stabroek News.  Neil Marks is also an experienced journalist who has hopscotched his way around the local media for a number of years, last serving as a News Editor with Capitol News.

Both Williams and Marks appeared before the Board at yesterday’s meeting and other staff members were also questioned.

By the end of the meeting, a decision was made that the Editor in Chief be sent on leave since the Board members were convinced that he was the one responsible for the publishing of the doctored photo.

The Guyana Chronicle has been trying to reshape itself as a more independent newspaper ever since the new government took office, but has only found itself making several editorial lapses.

During the recent local government elections, only the public meetings of the governing coalition gained front page recognition and one of the small parties that contested the Georgetown Municipality also complained about none of their letters being carried.

Editor-in-Chief, Nigel Williams

However, the Chronicle published several stories of a number of the contesting parties and groups and also featured candidates from most of the main groups and parties contesting the Georgetown elections.

And today’s edition of the newspaper has also completely ignored a scathing criticism of the Government by the Transparency Guyana group over the recent Brian Tiwarie appointment and revocation. The other four daily newspapers all carried the story on their front page.

Director of Public Information and Chronicle Board Director, Imran Khan has been attempting to lay blame for some of the recent blunders on the “inherited” staff members. But it was Khan who led the way with the hiring of a new editorial team just after the government took office and before the new board was put in place. He has also been criticized by Chronicle staffers of trying to determine the newspaper’s editorial position and content. He has denied those accusations.

Although, the Chronicle is state-owned, it does not depend on and does not receive a government subsidy. It makes a solid income, thanks to its popular classified section and the placement of advertisements.

Before winning last year’s General Elections, President David Granger had indicated a desire to privatize the Chronicle and other state media entities.

He had indicated to a number of persons that he believes a national radio station would be enough as a state media organisation with more support from the Government Information agency. He has not yet moved in that direction.

The President is a former newsmagazine publisher and also once served as an Executive Member of the Guyana Press Association.

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