Dear Editor,
When the only truly national newspaper in Guyana was Government owned and operated, my cousin, David De Caires, had the determination, courage and foresight to establish and publish the privately owned Stabroek News. This newspaper immediately earned the reputation of a truly politically independent, objective and factual publication. Sadly, even though it continues to be owned by the De Caires family, its reputation for independent and factual reporting and objective editorialising has become questionable.
I have searched in vain for many days back for a Stabroek News editorial which has not been anti-Government and now, in the context of elections, hostile to the PPP/C. Certainly not one in support of anything which the Government has or is doing nor, for that matter, the PPP/C.
In addition, the Stabroek News has provided a newspaper platform for articles by Christopher Ram, recognised as a virulent anti-Government personality, the subjects of which are then repeated as news, all of which are attacks on the governing party. In contrast, any criticism of the established opposition, APNU, is highly muted, and little or nothing is said about the other opposition parties, except for the fact of the editorial on “Azruddin Mohamed’s Candidacy” published last Tuesday (5th August, 2025).
While this editorial quite correctly underlines the “illegal activity” of Mohamed’s Enterprise, it does not neglect to also emphasise “bribery payments to Guyanese Government officials” and then, quite unfairly, editorialises that “that statement was as much an indictment of the PPP/C Administration as it was of the Mohameds”. How, may I ask, can the political leaders of a Government be held responsible for one or more of its professional employees taking bribes and, further, then discipline those employees without any evidence as yet being made available to the Government which will stand up in a local court?
Let us examine the platform given to Mr Ram, published in the Stabroek News at length on Saturday, 2nd August, 2025. Ram, citing the 15 per cent tariff now imposed by the Trump Government on Guyana, comparing it with the 10 per cent imposed on other CARICOM countries, Suriname, Cuba and Haiti, accuses the Guyanese Government of being “a compliant and accommodating partner”, which is entirely false and dishonest.
Both Christopher Ram and the Editor of Stabroek News know full well that, far from being compliant, it has been because of the persistent and unwavering diplomatic intervention involving President Ali himself and the Minister of Foreign Affairs with the US Secretary of State and the US Ambassador that the tariff rate has come down from 38 per cent to 15 per cent and that these negotiations are still taking place.
Both Ram and the Stabroek News also know full well that the reason the tariff applied to Guyana is slightly higher than that of CARICOM is the balance of payment surplus caused by our extensive oil income, even though Guyana has continued to re-emphasise in the negotiations that this income is actually greatly benefitting ExxonMobil and not Guyana.
Of course, Ram and the Stabroek News do not fail to have a dig at the Private Sector Commission (PSC), accusing the Commission of “its inertia”, totally ignoring the fact that the PSC’s Chairman, Capt Gerald Gouveia Jnr, while publicly welcoming the US reduction of the tariff rate from 38 per cent to 15 per cent, is reported as urging “continued dialogue (with the US Government) to further ease the impact this could have on Guyanese exporters”. Capt Gouveia is reported in the Guyana Times, for instance, on the same day, 2nd August, 2025, (to my point, not the Stabroek News), pointing out that “while we respect the right of every country to set its trade policy, we are mindful of the potential impact this may have on Guyana’s emerging non-oil export sectors like agriculture, agro-processing and manufacturing”.
The PSC was not the only private sector organisation to speak out on this matter. The Guyana Manufacturing Services Association (GMSA) is also reported to have expressed “appreciation to the Government for its active engagement and representation throughout the negotiation process with the US to secure a reduction”. Yet, Ram and the Stabroek News have the audacity to ignore this and pretend a different reality.
So, to return to my original reason for writing this letter, there seems to be abundant evidence that, whether by intent of its owners or the independently expressed will of its editorial management, the Stabroek News, particularly in the context of the current elections, has seriously lost its way as a politically independent and objective newspaper and, unfortunately, has joined all the other newspapers in exercising a political bias in its reporting and editorialising.
It is hugely regrettable, indeed, that the Stabroek News has become the premier Government opposition newspaper in the country at a time when its professional objectivity would have been all the more important to its faithful readers, including myself.
Yours Sincerely,
Kit Nascimento
