The simultaneous resignations of three reporters from the Guyana Times newspaper following the refusal of one of them to read a story involving the proprietor of the Kaieteur News, as an anchor on the affiliated Evening News of Television Guyana (TVG) raises the issue of fear that has been generated in the hearts of many by Glenn Lall and his newspaper.
It is now clear that the fear of being harmed by Lall has spread into the journalistic fraternity, who are supposed to investigate entities and individuals who exert such a chilling effect on such a wide swathe of society.
The launching of this newspaper in 2008 earned the ire of the Kaieteur News and its owner, who, up to then, had been very supportive of the incumbent government and its officials. The announced strategy of this newspaper, to adopt a “developmentalist” approach to its reporting, which rejected a reflexive antagonistic approach to the government in the quest to further human development in the country, must have stirred fears of the Kaieteur News viability.
This was made clearer when early on, Guyana Times garnered wide acceptance, even though it also eschewed the sensationalistic approach of the Kaieteur News.
Using its well-honed techniques of yellow journalism, however, the latter went after Guyana Times, accusing it of benefiting from “favours” from the government. One of those was the receipt of advertisements from the government, of which the Kaieteur News had a monopoly when its older rival, Stabroek News, did not receive such ads and was forced to protest.
The Kaieteur News, during that period, reaped the benefits of its monopoly and never once displayed support for the Stabroek News’ complaint. In fact, it derided that newspaper.
But with the three private papers sharing the government advertisements with the state- owned Guyana Chronicle, the Kaieteur News kept up its vendetta against Guyana Times, its owner and soon, the other companies owned by the latter.
When the government did not relent in its policy of encouraging a widening of the media space, the government itself became the target of the Kaieteur News’ yellow journalism. A campaign to expose “government corruption” soon became a weapon to settle scores with anyone who dared to disagree with Glenn Lall.
Lall’s reputation also intimidated many of his victims from responding.
In a cable from the local U. S. embassy’s political officer, to the U. S. State Department, as revealed by WikiLeaks, Lall had been described as having a “sketchy past” with ties to the criminal “underworld”, and engaging in backtracking or “alien smuggling”. It was revealed that he regularly passed on information about his friends and acquaintances in the business world to the U. S. embassy, accusing them of criminal activities.
His visa had been revoked in 2006 and it is surmised he engaged in such “snitching” to have his visa renewed, which it eventually was.
In the wake of recent efforts by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) to have Guyana comply with its international proposals to curb the international flow of funds from illegal activities by passing the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill (AMLCFT), Guyana Times and its affiliated media outlets decided to conduct a series of investigative journalistic pieces about the practices of Lall as alleged by the U. S. embassy.
This investigation into Lall’s public reputation began as far back as the early 1990s when he was accused of being allegedly involved in the killing of an individual in Agricola. Numerous stories of his alleged backtracking activities, which breached the vaunted Homeland Security, which the U. S. threw up after 2001, surfaced.
It was also alleged that he is the real owner of a Georgetown shopping mall, hidden by a wall of frontmen and paper corporations, which suggested an alleged massive money laundering operation by Lall.
The fear of the reporters of Glenn Lall is real and is also expressed by others who have remained with the company. If the journalistic fraternity of Guyana is to be taken seriously, it must not back away from investigating the source of this fear. The Guyana Times remains committed to its duty.
