Guyana govt punishes critical newspaper by choking state advertising

Guyana’s leading daily, a vocal critic of the government headed by President Bharrat Jagdeo, is now suffering from a total boycott by state advertisers.

“Governments must not allocate advertising to some news media as a reward, and withdraw it from others as a punishment – this is spelled out in the Chapultepec Declaration, which Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo himself signed,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said in a statement.

The country’s leading daily, the Stabroek News, has learned it is now under a total effective boycott by state advertisers after the Government Information Agency (GINA) on February 6 cancelled advertising space booked in the paper for the Guyana Revenue Authority. Since November 2006, this was the last body still placing advertising in the newspaper.

Public companies, but under private management, Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) and Guyana Power and Light have also decided not to advertise in the paper. The management of the two companies, denied having acted on the orders of GINA, did not offer any explanation. The government itself referred only to “accounting reasons” before refusing to respond to protests from the Guyana Press Association.

“Governments must not allocate advertising to some news media as a reward, and withdraw it from others as a punishment – this is spelled out in the Chapultepec Declaration, which Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo himself signed,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the government’s silence in the face of the Stabroek News’ legitimate demands suggests that the newspaper is being financially penalised because of its editorial positions,” the press freedom organisation said. “The government must provide an explanation and if it is slow to do so, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights should instruct it to provide one.”

The Stabroek News said its earnings from state advertising (government announcements, ministerial press releases etc) had declined sharply since November, three months after Jagdeo’s reelection as president.

International Press Institute (IPI) Director Johann P Fritz said, “The decision is an indication that the government has decided to increase its pressure on the Stabroek News. I would encourage the government to refrain from further inflaming the situation and invite it to examine other ways of resolving the problem.”

“The distribution of advertising is an unfair weapon in the hands of government, which can endanger freedom of the press. Governments believing in democracy must look at ways of removing this power and creating procedures that ensure advertising is distributed in an open and transparent manner,” said Fritz.

The Guyana Press Association and the Stabroek News accused Nanda Gopaul, permanent secretary at the office of the president, of ordering GINA not to assign any more advertising to the newspaper. GINA subsequently confirmed that only Guyana Revenue Authority advertisements were henceforth to be placed with the newspaper.

According to RSF, the newspaper’s editor, David de Caires, said he never received any reply to his request for a meeting with GINA director Prem Misir. De Caires wrote to Misir on January 3 claiming that the Stabroek News was being directly attacked “for political reasons,” in violation of the March 1994 Chapultepec Declaration on freedom of information and expression, which Jagdeo signed.

Karen Persaud, the person in charge of advertising at GINA, told De Caires on January 9 that his request “has been taken into account but has not yet been examined by the department concerned.” De Caires wrote back the next day complaining about this “unclear and unsatisfactory” reply. He has heard nothing more since then.