Dear Editor,
One of the features of our country’s history is the role that the media have played in political developments.
From time of the formation of the PPP, the mainstream media have been extremely hostile to it. During the 1950s and 1960s, the media actively promoted racial divisions in our country. That contributed to the racial clashes of the 1960s, something from which we have not fully recovered.
The Kaieteur News is continuing that despicable role in today’s Guyana. It lacks ethics and objectivity, and just promotes half-truths and downright lies. On May 31 last, its lead story accused me of deliberately misleading the nation in relation to the time that the oil find was known, even though I had dealt with this issue over and over in comments that I gave to the press whenever I was asked.
After reading the issue of May 31, 2019, I decided to give a more detailed and factual account of what the situation was in relation to oil at the time of the elections of May 2015.
At the same time, I took the opportunity to deal with many of the misrepresentations of the regime and its arm SARA, all of which found prominence in the Kaieteur News.
In my statement, I made it explicit that neither I nor the Government that I led had ever misled the public, as the Kaieteur News had headlined.
At a minimum, I had expected that the Kaieteur News would have published that response, which is in keeping with the principle of ‘the right to reply’. Maybe it was too much to expect.
However, in the June 1st issue of the Kaieteur News, I saw a reply to my statement without the statement being published by the newspaper. This is most unethical; and clearly, the Kaieteur News seems to be on another smear campaign, in the process distorting the facts and changing the main issue, while denying the right to reply.
Is it any wonder that this paper is the most sued newspaper in Guyana? The controllers seem to have no regard for objectivity, truth and balanced reporting.
I am aware that this paper always has an objective when it goes after persons and institutions. I wonder what it is that this paper is after now.
Sincerely,
Donald Ramotar
Former President