By Svetlana Marshall
Stabroek News – one of Guyana’s longest running independent newspapers – printed its last edition this morning, bidding farewell to the country’s media landscape after 39 years.
Known as the “newspaper of record”, from the time of it first edition, Stabroek News in November 1986, the newspaper was seen as championing democracy, free speech, accountability and quality journalism.
In an interview, outgoing Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said the newspaper is pleased to have maintained its independence even as it pushed for the country to maintain high democratic values.
During the Donald Ramotar Administration (2011-2015), the newspaper began agitating for Local Government Elections, which, at the time, had not been held since 1994.
“It was disgraceful that the last Local Government Elections we had, up to the point that we had begun the campaign, was in 1994. So, you could just imagine if you went from 1994 and you go up to 2011 and you don’t have Local Government Elections, what you had was Governments’ postponing, no not 1996, not only 1997, not 1998, not 1999, and finding excuses, and you can find your way up to 2011 without holding elections that is terrible. And why it is something that the newspaper took up is – we had for the most part gone very often into local communities and we could see the deprivation and the break down in local communities,” he explained.
Through various stories, and on its front page, Stabroek News reminded the powers that be of the need for Local Elections to be held. At the time, many of the councils were replaced with Interim Management Committees (IMCs). Those elections were eventually held in 2016 under the David Granger Administration.
Local Government Elections are due this year, and Persaud said he looks forward to those elections being held.
Describing a low point at the newspaper, Persaud said he felt the gains made over the years in championing democracy were threatened in 2020 when there was an alleged attempt at electoral fraud.
“I will point to the attempt to rig the elections in 2020, because, like I said, when we started in 1986 one of our main thrusts at that stage was the campaign for free and fair elections. So, we were able to get over that hurdle in 1992 and we returned to free and fair elections. And thereafter we did have elections that had a fair amount of trouble with unrests in the streets – we had the Herdmanston Accord that abridged Mrs. Jagan’s terms, we did have a lot of electoral difficulties. But what happened in 2020 was sort of very destructive and disastrous. What we were going back to 1992 and all of the turmoil that was going on there – a naked attempt to rig the elections. You begin to think, was all of your work worth it?” Persaud explained.
Persaud said in the end, democracy prevailed, thanks to work done by the free press, civil society actors, and the diplomatic community among others that kept a close watch.
As a watchdog of society, Stabroek News not only acted as the voice of society, speaking on behalf of the voiceless, but it provided a platform for Guyanese from all walks to life to ventilate their concerns. Persaud said among the newspaper’s popular features was its Letters Column.
“Our pages allowed people to speak and to ventilate about anything that they had concerns about. When we came on the scene in 1986, like I said the society was very closed but our letter columns became extremely popular and they are popular today. Some days we have to run four, five pages of letters. We have more letters on a daily basis that we can carry, and the most important letters are the ones relate to people’s ordinary grouses or problems,” the EIC explained.
He said those letters sparked discussions on a national level, and in some cases, resulted in swift actions from the authorities.
A change in market conditions is among key factors that influenced the newspaper’s decision to close with effect from today, March 15. Companies and individuals are now turning to social media to have the products and services advertised.
For the last five years, Stabroek News confronted those challenges head-on, and in doing so, explored a number of options, including digitizing parts of its operations. But, despite the newspapers’ best efforts there was nothing that really provided the long term security it needed, and Government’s refusal to pay millions of dollars owed did not help.
Persaud said sadly, Stabroek News is closing down with a dreadful record of the current Government not having paid more than $85 million owed for services provided.
“Newspaper Industries all over the world are facing the same problem – you are losing your two main streams of revenue, you are losing newspaper subscribers and you are losing advertisers – and if you look at our newspaper today, you will see major advertisers like Courts, Banks DIH, Digicel, GTT and so on, they have migrated to online platforms more or less, and so, you had to confront the reality that by the loss of those revenue streams, your independence is under threat. And this is what we safeguarded for 40 years, that is, we were able to make our own way with our revenue streams, with the support from the public, with support from the advertisers and that enabled our independent view points. We are now at the risk here of not being able to make our way and what ultimately happens there is that people then come and say no we don’t want you to go in this direction, we want you to go in that direction, and we are not prepared for that. So, our position is, we are leaving on our own terms, on our own feet,” Persaud said.
In paying tribute to Stabroek News, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) said the newspaper’s closure marks a significant loss to the nation’s media landscape.
It said for decades, Stabroek News has been a pillar of independent journalism, providing citizens with credible information, diverse perspectives, and fearless reporting. The Press Association said Stabroek News’ closure represents not only the silencing of a critical voice, but also a reminder of the challenges faced by independent media in sustaining operations amidst economic and political pressures.
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