Ramroop’s ownership of electronic media resulted from purchase of Tony Vieira’s VCT

– Kaieteur News articles nothing but envy and malice, says CEO

Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop has reacted sharply to the plethora of libelous articles spun by Kaieteur News in wake of the release by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds of information on ownership of television and radio broadcasting frequencies in Guyana.

In bold front page headlines, the muckraking tabloid, recently censured by the Private Sector Commission and the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana for similar statements about some of its executives, claimed that “just before he left office, former President Jagdeo farmed out the airwaves for his friends”.
They specifically alleged that Dr Ramroop received nine television and radio frequencies from “his best friend President Jagdeo”.
“This is a total fabrication, and bears not the slightest semblance to what is actually the case,” said an annoyed Dr Ramroop, when Guyana Times International sought a reaction from him.
“This is just a continuation of the vendetta that Glenn Mohan Lall and his sidekick Adam Harris had launched years ago against me. He has a very perverse and perverted fascination for President Jagdeo and me.”
Licences
Asked what were the facts about the broadcast licences, Dr Ramroop replied, “What makes the headlines most insidious is that, in their editorial on Saturday, March 15, they admitted that we purchased our television broadcasting license from Vieira Communications and that this also came with a radio licence. Why were these facts not mentioned in their sensationalised headlined stories?”
Noting that the reporting by the Kaieteur News broke all the basic rules of journalism, Dr Ramroop pointed out that this irresponsibility has become routine for Kaieteur News.

“President Jagdeo gave our company nothing, absolutely nothing. We bought this component of the electronic media from Tony Vieira in a private transaction. Vieira was a very visible and vocal member of the People’s National Congress (PNC).
When questioned by GTI as to whether the claim in the Kaieteur News editorial that licences were non-transferrable and that this made the sale questionable, Dr Ramroop sighed in disgust and exasperation.
“Such a statement in an editorial makes clear the extent to which Kaieteur News is either ignorant of the law or willing to twist the law to serve its malicious persecution of my companies. The fact of the matter is that incorporated businesses are legal bodies that have a life of their own – one speaks of a ‘body corporate’. The shares in such entities can be bought and sold by individuals, but the company continues with all its rights and obligations. Unlike Kaieteur News, we are not running a cake shop over here,” charged Dr Ramroop.
“What kind of media operation would allow its so-called journalists to write such wild news reports, which the average reader would assume to be fact-checked? I consider the reputation of our media organisation to be sacrosanct and we will take appropriate actions to protect it,” added Dr Ramroop.
Paranoia
One business executive is of the view that the continued obsession, paranoia, vindictiveness, envy and fixation on the prudent entrepreneurship of Dr Ramroop have now become so obnoxious that Guyanese in the business community ought to be balking at the barefacedness of the principals of some sections of the private media. In particular, he said the Kaieteur News has embarked on a never-ending campaign to constantly attack the media houses associated with Dr Ramroop.
“The publication of meaningless advertisements featuring photographs of former president Jagdeo and Dr Ramroop must now have become an insult to the very readers who buy the paper for what should be-news and information about their country and world in which they live.
One can hardly fathom what benefit such advertisements can have on the intellectual and even average reader. Clearly, they must not only feel insulted by now, but disrespected and offended as well to have to encounter such mudslinging and gutter journalism day after day,” he said.
Guyana Times/ Television Guyana/ Radio Guyana group General Manager Daniel Singh noted that Kaieteur News has now upped the ante by publishing front page photos to make headlines out of what were, and still are, non- stories.
“As if the silly advertisements were not enough, the Kaieteur News has been publishing a repetition of articles featuring quotes from various members of the opposition, all saying the same thing,” he said.

The grudge first took root with the launch of Guyana Times in 2008 and spiralled into hatemongering, as Kaieteur News continued to predicate attacks on almost every company associated with, or owned by Dr Ramroop.
Kaieteur News was in business when Dr Ramroop acquired the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (NEW GPC) in 1999. Between 1999 and 2008, there was not a single negative article about Dr Ramroop or NEW GPC. That has now changed, with more scurrilous attacks through articles, editorials, columns and letters – all of them manufactured or distorted – regularly.
In the history of media in Guyana, there have been several instances when new entrants challenged the status quo and earned their ire, but the scale, scope and intensity of the attacks by Kaieteur News is clearly unprecedented.
“Is it about the ownership of media houses? Is it about the ownership of business in general? Or is it that the owner of the Kaieteur News is profoundly jealous of someone who has done better than him, and by legitimate means?” questioned Singh. “I am shocked that, to date, the Private Sector Commission has been so silent, when in other cases, its executives have rushed to defend other Guyanese entrepreneurs.”