Guyana’s Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand has blasted the state-owned Guyana Chronicle over a decision by the daily newspapers to carry a front page photograph of two high school children involved in a sex act in its Tuesday 7th October edition.

In a statement on her Facebook page, Ms. Manickchand said she was stunned when she saw the photographs in the Chronicle.

“I was stunned. This is absolutely abhorrent, in poor taste and unprofessional journalistic work. I hope to see an unqualified apology for what was very, very poor judgement on the part of the newspaper”, Manickchand said.

She called for the Chronicle to issue a full apology and the newspaper did just that on the front page of its Wednesday edition.

In that apology, the Guyana Chronicle said “we sincerely regret the error in judgment demonstrated by the decision to provide front page and pictorial coverage of a purported sexual act involving two minors. While our intent was not to be unkind or malicious, in hindsight we recognised that our actions may have been more sensational than helpful.”

Minister Manickchand in her statement said she was forced to call the  Chairman of the Board at the Guyana Chronicle to register “my horror and I was assured that the matter was being dealt with, with a view to ensuring that this type of reporting did not happen again”.

The Minister said she remains concerned about how children are covered in the local media and she could make herself available to enlighten journalists and media workers aware of what is acceptable and what is not when reporting on sex offenses and/or children and sex.

On the issue of the sex video involving the High School children, Manickchand said the Ministry of Education is still investigating the matter.

However, she said that as a nation, Guyana must address how “we will engage with our children in this new world, this new Guyana where information technology presents all the exciting opportunities that we wish to make available to our young people while at the same time exposing them to such risk”.

Manickchand said citizens can no longer shirk their collective responsibility and bury their heads in the sand.

“We will have to talk to them about, inter alia, sex, about sex and the use of the computer, about sex and the use of the cell phone, about sex and Facebook, about sex… we will have to engage them as parents and as schools, as churches and temples and mosques. This is not the job of any one person. Together we will have to chart this new course where age old sex and age old curiosity and age old activities can now be broadcast at the click of a button. we can do this, so let us start”, Manickchand said.

Filed:  8th October, 2014

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