Guyana Times: A decade of responsible journalism

One decade ago, the Guyana Times newspaper was launched in the midst of both global and domestic turmoil. Internationally, the financial crisis in the developed economies had led to a meltdown of such proportions that there were fears of another “Great Depression” rivalling in its effects, the one in the 1930s that had infected every country in the world, including Guyana. Domestically, the Government and State had been under attack since 2002 by an armed gang which had committed one massacre of innocents in January at Lusignan and another the following month in Bartica. Then, there was the revolution in journalism and the press occasioned by the explosive growth of the Internet.
These were uncertain times, but the publisher of Guyana Times, was determined to keep his commitment to introduce another member of the “fourth estate”: one dedicated to the promulgation of news designed to educate the populace so that they could more responsibly perform their roles in a democratic polity as “informed” citizens. Its motto, “The beacon of truth” was taken very seriously: not that it was felt there was one grand “TRUTH” in capital letters, but that the facts were to be reported as accurately as possible and not be confused with opinions.
In journalism, where the product itself is information, change was inevitable. The Internet was perhaps the major catalyst. The instantaneity of this medium had made, for instance, the time-honoured tradition of the overnight scoop almost obsolete. How would the morning papers compete? Guyana Times decided to provide added value to their information: analysis, context, perspective, and narrative. We called this approach “responsible journalism.”
Rather depressingly, some journalistic print outlets, abroad as well as in our country, had taken another road. They resorted to the nastiness and ad hominem attacks that the anonymity of the Internet blogsphere had fostered. While there has long existed what has been labelled, “yellow journalism” and the “tabloid” approach of scurrilous sensationalism, some outlets in Guyana invoked the “free-speech” mantra, to revel in it as if hundreds of years of legal precedence about “responsibility” are for naught. Guyana Times would provide an antidote to this “gutter press” approach.
The golden rule of responsible journalism has to be a very simple one: “just stick to the facts”. There is no law that these facts do not have to be couched in very good prose and delivered from given perspectives. The danger that presents itself is that of the unalloyed partisanship that seems to have become the rule in Guyana. This approach is very disrespectful of the readers: it assumes that they cannot pick sense from nonsense.
The publisher also believed that the vehicle for transmitting the information must also reflect the seriousness with which the reported facts are to be taken. The physical paper was a bright, high-quality bond paper that would not smear the readers’ hands, much as other newspapers smeared the characters of those on their bad books. The full colour paper was maintained for almost all of Guyana Times’ existence, to expose Guyanese to another facet of quality in newspapers. The size of the newspaper was another factor that bucked a simple profit motive: it was not “tabloid” size because it refused to adopt the mores of the tabloid, sensationalist press.
A few years ago, a former Justice of their Supreme Court – Markandey Katju –with impeccable credentials after decisions from the bench redolent of individual freedoms, was made Chairman of Press Council of India. He placed the responsibilities of the press in developing countries such as Guyana, in its historical context: Our societies are in transition from a very backward feudalistic past to modern society. Old values are crumbling, but new modern values have not yet been put in place. “In this transition period the role of ideas, and therefore of the media, becomes extremely important. At a particular historical juncture, ideas become a material force.”
Guyana Times is in agreement and renews its commitment to practice “responsible journalism”.