Following revelations that an Alliance For Change (AFC) Minister may have been behind the Guyana Chronicle dropping two outspoken columnists, three Directors have resigned from the Board of the State-owned entity.
WPA Executive Member Tabitha Sarabo-Halley
According to sources, Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Executive Member Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, veteran Journalist Bert Wilkinson and communications specialist Karen Davis all tendered their resignations at a Board meeting on Tuesday.
Guyana Times had reported on Monday that WPA activist, former Member of Parliament (MP) Desmond Trotman had revealed that it was a senior AFC Minister who contacted the Guyana Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief, Nigel Williams.
According to Trotman, this Minister had conveyed Cabinet’s dissatisfaction with the writings of the fired columnists, WPA Executive David Hinds and veteran trade unionist Lincoln Lewis.
“The previous Chairman of the Guyana Chronicle was at odds with the other members of the Board, because he wanted the Chronicle to go in a certain direction and members of the Board objected to that, and I think it led to his resignation. That person holds a high position in the Prime Minister’s Office, and I sense that he wields tremendous influence,” Trotman said.
“I suspect that he belongs to the same party that the Prime Minister belongs to; and so when I was told that a senior minister who belongs to the AFC…was one of the persons who conveyed to the Editor-in-Chief of the Chronicle that there is dissatisfaction within the Cabinet about the direction that those two columnists were going…,” he posited.
Veteran Journalist Bert Wilkinson
Since Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief fired Lewis and Hinds, several executives of the WPA have come out condemning the actions of the State newspaper. WPA’s Tacuma Ogunseye has since expressed the opinion that his party should leave the coalition, since its views are being silenced. He has been very vocal in the media.
In this regard, Trotman said he would have had discussions with at least two high-ranking People’s National Congress (PNC) officials who have since expressed their support for the views of Ogunseye.
He noted that although the WPA issued a firm statement on what that party thought was the denial of press freedom, it was Ogunseye’s letters to the local press that generated interest in the matter.
The former MP explained that the Government was forcing its supporters away with its attempt to stifle criticisms of its policy direction.
“When you go in that direction (of silencing your critics), you’re forcing people to go underground and take positions life-threatening to this thing we call the coalition… When we sat down to discuss what led to the formation of the APNU, we took a whole range of things into consideration, and those views were represented in the Statement of Principles of the Party. We were concerned about the trampling of press freedom, and we swore (that) in a new dispensation that will not happen,” Trotman noted.
Williams wrote to Hinds and Lewis, informing them that their contracts would be terminated effective March 12, 2018 in an effort to rebrand the State newspaper. The two have since called the Government out as having made the decision to have them fired because of their critique of its performance.
