The Guyana Press Association (GPA) has accused the Government of attempting to set up a parallel organization that is intended to undermine the 78-year-old press association, and stifle press freedom in Guyana.
In its World Press Freedom Day statement, the GPA said it is seeing 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.
According to the GPA, “the sitting government is evidently coercing those workers to engage in practices that are inimical to the Guyana Press Association at the altar of political expediency, hence the collective well-being of their organised body. There had been failed attempts in the past to do so through the partisan Union of Guyanese Journalists (UGJ)”.
The Association said the Government has now embarked on a two-pronged strategy – one, to take over the Press Association using state and government aligned media houses, 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,” it said.
It said too that 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 resort to defaming the character of journalists on a politically-aligned social media page or the expletive-laced response to a journalist are themselves a violation of Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights that protects people against attacks upon their honour and reputation,” it said.
GPA said its international partners and affiliates have been informed of the efforts to derail the Press Association, and on the continuous attacks on journalists in Guyana
In a brief message on his Facebook page, President Irfaan Ali affirmed his Government’s commitment to Press Freedom.
“I take this opportunity also to iterate my condemnation of any attempt to intimidate or attack members of the media. Such repressible conduct has no place in a democratic society and is to denounced in the strongest manner,” the President said.
Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy contended that successive PPP/C Governments have consistently regarded the free press in high esteem.
According to him, the Government has also created opportunities for professional industry training and academic growth, and is building an enabling environment that safeguards the sanctity, security, freedoms and access of the media, in consonance with broader freedoms and rights enjoyed by every citizen under the constitution.
Pointing to the 2021 signing and ratification of the Media Freedom Coalition, Minister McCoy said successive PPP/C administrations have ratified and enforced international conventions and subscribed to global platforms and fora that promote and advocate in the interest of the fraternity.
Meanwhile in a statement, the Parliamentary Opposition said press freedom has come under severe threat and the role of a free press has come under stricter scrutiny in Guyana.
According to the Opposition, Guyanese can no longer take certain assumptions and written guarantees for granted.
“We call on all Guyanese to use their voices and votes to reject this devious government plot. We call on Guyanese to use their voices and votes to stand up for press freedom, for an independent media, and for the freedoms of expression, conscience, and association”, the Opposition said.
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