Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo is upset with the front page of today’s edition of the Guyana Chronicle and believes the state-owned newspaper was not objective in its reporting of yesterday’s consideration of the budget estimates.

The front page of the Tuesday August 25th edition of the Chronicle screamed “Govt. blunders on budget estimates…violates laws assented to by President Granger”.

Another front page story highlighted the concerns of the Opposition PPP about Mr. Nagamootoo’s presence in the National Assembly while serving as Acting President, while a third front page story reported on the government’s failure to gazette the new Ministries and the fact that the “oversight” resulted in the late start of the budget considerations.

News Source understands that at least one government minister expressed concern about the Chronicle stories before the Prime Minister decided to have a discussion with the Chronicle Parliamentary reporter, Derwayne Wills on the issue, on the corridors of Parliament building during a break from the budget considerations this afternoon.

After the one-on-one meeting, Prime Minister Nagamootoo expressed his displeasure and disappointment over the headlines in the state-owned newspaper that he recently declared was the “paragon of good journalism”.

“I had a conversation with Mr. Wills, you may wish to speak with Mr. Wills about the nature of our conversation… we had a conversation about journalism,” Nagamootoo said as he sought to dismiss the issue.

“I believe that sometimes some headlines will surprise you and this one did surprise me,” Nagamootoo said.

The Prime Minister who holds responsibility for the Public Information maintained that he did not interfere with the work of the reporter or the editor’s judgment to publish the headline. He admitted however that the conversation between himself and the reporter was triggered by Tuesday’s headline.

While in opposition, the APNU and AFC accused the then PPP government of political interference in the state media.

Already there have been reports of information officials of the new government making demands of senior officials of sections of the state media.

The Prime Minister has been defending his decision to appoint APNU+AFC Candidate at the last elections, Beverly Alert as the Director of the Government Information Agency.

Additionally News Source understands that a move is underway to make the Director of Public Information at the Office of the Prime Minister, Imran Khan, the new Chairman of the Board at the Guyana Chronicle.

Khan is the former Chief Communications Officer for the APNU+AFC Campaign. There are also reports that the Head of Communications at the Ministry of the Presidency, Mark Archer is also touted to be a member of both the Guyana Chronicle and NCN Boards.

Archer also served as a Senior Communications Officer for the APNU+AFC Campaign and worked also as the Communications Chief for the APNU while it was in opposition.

Meanwhile, current Editor of the Guyana Times, Nigel Williams has been hired as the new Editor-In-Chief of the Guyana Chronicle. He is expected to turn out to work on September 1, 2015.  Williams will be joined by President of the Guyana Press Association and current Capitol News Anchor, Neil Marks who will serve as the Sunday and Online Editor for the Guyana Chronicle. Marks is expected to also begin his new job on September 1.

Both Williams and Marks have a wealth of experience in journalism, each spending over 15 years in the local media.

The current Acting Editor of the Guyana Chronicle, Mark Ramotar will remain as the Editor. He has been with the state-owned newspapers for several years.

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