For at least one day (today) many hope the eyes of the world will focus on places where persons in the media--bloggers included--have been jailed, and even killed for writing about injustices.
The list of offending countries and media persons in peril includes Sri Lanka (journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam), Iran (journalist, Roxana Saberi), The Gambia (Ebrima Manneh), Iraq (journalists in iraqi Kurdistan), China (journalist, Shi Tao), Egypt (blogger, Karim Amer), and Afghanistan (journalist, Perwiz Kambakhsh).
To a lesser degree of injury, but certainly just as important in the matter of restrictions on press freedoms, is what's taking place in Guyana. What I see in Guyana is a less evident condition of press freedom restriction.
Now one can easily point to President Jagdeo as a major offender. His rantings against the press who dare to criticize the government of Guyana are well documented, and could be seen as a clear reason why journalists and other media persons may tend to avoid news stories and opinions that may offend the beast. Jagdeo has overwhelming power in Guyana and isn't shy about using it to isolate journalists for special punishment. Browse Stabroek News' website for stories of his handling of Gordon Moseley, if you haven't read about that already.
But even more freedom-restricting than Jagdeo's actions, are the actions of some top media Personnel in Guyana. Two recent editorials, one by Guyana Times editor Nigel Williams, and another by Kaieteur News Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris, point to larger problems concerning press freedom in Guyana.
In an editorial last month--which mysteriously disappeared from the Times' website shortly after this blogger brought it to our attention--Williams wrote rather defensively about the sound condition of Guyana's financial system, basing his opinion heavily on the reports of one bank in Guyana (not the Central bank, mind you). Now we assume Williams is fully aware of the wide-ranging fall out of CLICO's (Guyana) collapse--job losses, unanswered questions, and a general loss of confidence in how it's all being handled--as well as corrupt business practices elsewhere, which at least threaten Guyana's much-touted (by Jagdeo) financial soundness. So Williams's defensive editorial (essentially defending and supporting Jagdeo's claims) was a direct restriction against any of his staff who might want to write the truth about what they see.
So too was Adam Harris's editorial last Sunday in which he defended this Kaieteur News headline: "Maria van Beek Survives Execution." Imran Khan more than ably pointed out why the headline was worded incorrectly. And there's another offense in the use of the word "execution."
An execution (as Harris astutely emphasized in the editorial) has judicial connotations. The executioner is usually seeking to right a wrong, or carry out punishment for a crime committed. In that case, the headline suggests that the person who shot van Beek was seeking justice of some sort. Now unless Kaieteur News has evidence of the shooter's intentions or reasons for his actions, the headline was egregiously misleading. Even worse is the suggestion (by Kaieteur News) that van Beek did something wrong and the shooter was seeking to right it. Maybe in his next editorial Harris will provide us with a crafty definition of d-e-f-a-m-a-t-o-r-y.
And speaking of crafty, Harris's paltry attempt at semantics with his middlefinger on the word "execution," brings up two very disturbing issues. The first is his insistence on its accuracy despite several (as he tells us) concerned calls from (I assume) his colleagues and people who read Kaieteur News. I find his arrogance an appalling abuse of power. But, something else comes to mind about Kaieteur News: its branding.
As I've said before, Kaieteur News seems to thrive on the sensational, and maybe there was some attempt at sensational cunning with the use of the word "execution" in the headline. If that's the case, it worked. People paid attention to it for days, and some still are. Here I am writing about it. Now I don't know if this resulted in more reads or more purchases of the newspaper, but maybe there was some "fox" in Harris's apparent nutty behaviour. What Harris did was teach his young reporters a sad lesson in manipulation--of words, of mindsets--and his deceit will ultimately go a long way towards restricting his young reporters' freedom to write the truth.
So here's what I propose we do in true support of those media persons around the world (and in Guyana as well) whose freedoms are being stifled by abusive powers: Don't read or buy Kaieteur News and The Guyana Times--and while we're at it throw in the Guyana Chronicle as well--for at least one week. And let's go here instead to add out voices to the calls for action.
[Note: I deliberately didn't link to Harris's editorial, but it's there if you want to read it.]
