As Guyanese Journalists join their colleagues across the globe to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, the Guyana Press Association is using the occasion to call on the government to immediately address issues that threaten this freedom such as the continued existence of political interference in some sections of the state media.
World Press Freedom Day is being observed today, Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017.
In a statement, the Guyana Press Association bemoaned the Government’s increasingly rigid posture against sections of the media and the organization by refusing to concretely address several concerns.
The GPA said it has sought an audience with the Prime Minister on various issues but to no avail but said it remains grateful for the engagements with President David Granger.
“However, we continue to receive complaints of government / political interference in the work of taxpayers’ funded State-owned media. We continue to condemn the moves by some government ministers to steer the editorial content of the state media. The continued presence of Mr Imran Khan, the Director of Public Information, as the chairman of the Board of the Chronicle newspapers, sends a message of direct state control and runs counter to public statements by the President that his executive will not undermine the professionalism of the state media,” the statement noted.
The Association said it is in receipt of complaints from two of its members that they have been accosted by presidential public affairs personnel and pulled away although President David Granger had expressed a willingness to speak.
“These actions taken together clearly send a damning message to the regional and international media community that Guyana and Guyanese media workers need to take decisive action to arrest what could very well be the continuation of media repression by successive political directorates under the guise of repeated public declarations in support of press freedom,” the statement added.
The Guyana Press Association calls on the Government to immediately desist from carrying out certain actions that are inimical to press freedom and instead to subscribe to its promise of breaking with the past.
“The Guyana Government needs to play a significant role in helping to shape the press freedom environment especially in an era of digital delivery of information on which people are increasingly dependent on, like conventional mass media, to make a wide array of decisions that affect their lives.”
Further, the Association calls on President Granger to hold periodic press conferences of no less than one hour.
While the GPA appreciates that the President is not averse to speaking with the media on the side lines of public events or during his ‘Public Interest’ programme, the GPA believes that accountability to the Guyanese people will be best served through press conferences at which he can be questioned in detail about his government’s policies and programmes.
As Opposition, Mr. Granger hosted regular weekly press conferences. Since taking office two years ago, the President has hosted just two press conferences, and one of those was specific to local government elections.
The Association also called on the President to advise the media in advance of his overseas engagements to allow media houses the opportunity to plan or decide whether they would like to cover those visits at their own expense.
The GPA reported that over the past months it held a number of training programmes and in the upcoming months, several workshops are planned as it seeks to improve the capacity of local journalists to cover key issues in a professional and well-informed manner.
Over the past year, there have been occasions when the GPA has had to upbraid and caution some of its members for their reporting.
The legal fraternity as well as Journalists are being urged to be cognizant of the various laws and regulations that have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and access to information.
The GPA takes the firm view that a strong judiciary is an important pillar in the protection and promotion of free media as part of the promotion of a healthy democracy in which ordinary people and decision-makers alike can share competing ideas, constructive criticisms and suggestions for nation- building.
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