by Keith R. Williams
The ever prolific cheering section for everything done by the Guyana Government proceeds to advance a litany of points, ostensibly to demonstrate that the response of the Stabroek News to the withdrawal of Tax Payer funded advertisements from that periodical by the Government, was unjustified. What is demonstrably apparent in the position that these points caption however, is the accuracy with which George Orwell was able to project the human capacity for hypocrisy into his porcine characters in his literal work “Animal Farm”. For among all the issues under mastication in Guyana between 1992 and the present, none is more analogous with the before and after scenario of “Animal Farm”, than the issue surrounding press freedom and ownership in this Nation.
The pre-1992 voices that rose stridently in condemnation of ex-officio political control and regulation of media apparatus in Guyana, indulge in the most acrobatic linguistic exercises to rationalize in 2007, that which they were bitterly opposed to in 1991. Orwell’s pigs changed rules that read, “No animals should sleep in beds” to “No animals should sleep in beds with sheets”. Their human replicas on the Guyana ethical political scene are also given to adjusting their positions on issues with like consummate elasticity. For example, while it was repugnant and undemocratic for the state to control radio stations and a daily newspaper in 1980, it is ok in 2007 for them to control television, radio and newspaper. And about the only reason that exists for their strange acrobatic adjustment, is the fact the political party they support is the one now in control of the media apparatus today.
Among the points advanced in rejection of the Stabroek News response in the ads withdrawal issue is one that reads:
“It appears that the Stabroek News believes that the administration is obligated to advertise in its newspaper. Why does it feel that way“?
Well, given the fact that the dollars for those ads come in large quantities from the salaries of many who depend on the Stabroek News and the other Independent Daily for their public information requirements, isn’t it kind of presumptuous of the Government and this defender to exercise this kind of hubris? Those ads are not paid for with party funds I believe. If they were, then certainly the Stabroeknews and any other media entity unaffiliated with the party in question would have to band their bellies and bite their lips. But since their circulation is provably supported by large segments of the population, there is an obligation, on part of the Government, to cater to the information preference and requirements of those population segments to the same degree that it has to do for others. And how ironic and perhaps informative that those who, with one hemisphere of their brains formulate thoughts of the insignificance of a newspaper, with the other hemisphere seem to reverse that thought process through manifested expectations that their views will be given illumination in the same newspaper. Go figure.
Another point advanced is that quote, “The Stabroek News, as we have seen, is making the issue political”. Of course the issue is political. Only a Martian or sycophant more committed to spinning than to postulations of truth and reality would harbor the notion that those ads would have been withdrawn if the Stabroek News had been operating like a cheerleading ensemble for the ruling party and Government. The innate intelligence and memory of the population of this country are being insulted every day by such partisan and fatuous conclusions.
The insinuations are that while certain behaviors of the predecessors of the current regime were reprehensible, when they are repeated by the current regime they are ok. And that somehow the population, or most of it anyway, lack the facility of conscious memory and abstract cognitive connectivity to detect the glaring and apparent hypocrisy always being advanced as salient points. Sure, if you believe in the tooth fairy you night be inclined towards the notion that the decision to withdraw the ads emanated purely from business considerations. Because you would have to ignore the fact that audience size is a primary business consideration when the circulation of advertisements are under speculation. But if you are given to calling it a duck when it walks and quacks like one, you will throw out the rubbish being advanced to obfuscate what is an unequivocal mean spirited political payback.
When one considers that the Stabroek News was virtually the lone print media voice crying the concerns of the PPP in the wilderness prior to their advent into the pinnacle of power, one would be advised to take stock of what is going on in Guyana. Those that beat on their chest and utter proclamations in favor of democracy at street corners, are peculiarly offended when its manifestations operate to illuminate the variance between their talking and their walking. They are wont to cry for and champion the enforcement and rule of Laws, except when the transgressions appear in the form of vigilantism and extra-judicial adventurisms. In brief, they wish to have their cake and eat it too.
The definition of Freedom of Information in a democracy cannot be encapsulated in a framework limited to how many private newspapers or television stations exist. Particularly in societies such as ours, where truth is, undeniably, too often a circumstance of convenience. The existence of freedom of information must be manifested by people having a choice of diverse sources of news and information. It would be a blatant falsehood to claim, for example, that the people of Linden or in the hinterland enjoy the freedom to diverse steams of information.
Only the state controlled television station is allowed to supply information to the people of the former location, and since only state control radio broadcast is possible in Guyana, the choices of information sources for both Linden and the Hinterland are thus limited to what is dispensed by the state. And given the fact that the state did not secure a majority of the electoral confidence of Lindeners, what is occurring in respect of information freedom there is both despicable and dictatorial.
The advancers of the points critical of the Stabroek News would have labeled it just like that, if the location was Leguan and the state was controlled by the PNC. The convenience and alacrity with which they can cross ethical fences based on who is in control is alarming, and the yardstick by which their integrity should always be measured.
