For the past two years, journalists in Guyana have been trying desperately to get President David Granger to recommence the hosting of regular press conferences, where they can be afforded the opportunity to ask him directly about issues related to the overall governance and performance of his A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change Government, which took office back in May 2015.
Despite their best efforts and a host of criticisms, Mr Granger, who is also Guyana’s Head of State, Executive President and the Commander of the Armed Forces, continues to ignore the concerns and protestations of the country’s local media corps.
In fact, Mr Granger, through his Ministry of the Presidency spokesperson, has denied that he has been unwilling to engage the press directly, or has been flouting his duty to engage the media corps on issues of national importance since gaining Executive Power. Instead, he argues that an “effort as regularly as possible” is being made to engage the media, “particularly” during public exercises, while reminding those complaining that they have access to officials within the hierarchy of Government who have responsibility for the dissemination of public communication and information.
Since making that statement, the President has not kept a single press conference, despite a raft of controversies and problems arising as a direct result of some of the objectionable and incoherent policies adopted by his Government.
His refusal to meet the press at specialised conferences organised to deal with their concerns comes on heels of statements that he made at a media brunch held back in January this year, where he expressed concerns over the publication and broadcast of “fake news”. While some saw the entire event as an opportunity for the President to take a photo opportunity with the media which would send a signal that the relations with the journalistic pools were much improved, others believed that the media allowed itself to be played.
But the substantive issue is that the President was not upbraided appropriately for his subliminal attack on the Guyanese media corps, even though he has expressed concern about “fake news”.
He began using the term after sections of the media started reporting on the country’s economic woes, and symptoms which pointed to ‘prerecession’ within the country. Also, when the news broke that Government had awarded itself a 50% salary increase ahead of public servants and just after winning the May 2015 elections, Mr Granger had been concerned about “fake news” even though there was nothing fake about that news.
He said then: “We acknowledge that every person has some bias….we must try to be objective… Don’t publish fake news…. Don’t allow your bias to take the place of objectivity”.
Granger even called for the Guyana Press Association to discipline reporters whom he said were “out of line” while performing their duties. For the record, the Guyanese media are not the enemies of the people. It has been fair in its reportage on events of national importance since before the David Granger Administration took office, and has held every single administration — be it PPP or PNC — to task and account for their actions.
But the true enemies of the people and democracy are those who try to suffocate truth by vilifying and demonising the messenger. The response to that cannot be silence on the part of the media.
Back in 1787, the year the US Constitution was adopted, Thomas Jefferson famously wrote to a friend, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
That’s how he felt before he became president, anyway. Twenty years later, after enduring the oversight of the press from inside the White House, he was less sure of its value. “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper,” he wrote. “Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”
Jefferson’s discomfort was, and remains, understandable. Reporting the news in an open society is an enterprise laced with conflict. His discomfort also illustrates the need for the right he helped enshrine. As the founders believed from their own experience, a well-informed public is best equipped to root out corruption and, over the long haul, promote liberty and justice.
“Public discussion is a political duty,” the US Supreme Court said in 1964. That discussion must be “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,” and “may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”
In 2018, it must not be forgotten that some of the most damaging attacks are coming from Government officials. Criticising the news media — for underplaying or overplaying stories, for getting something wrong — is entirely right. News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes. Correcting them is core to our job.
But insisting that truths you don’t like are “fake news” is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the “enemy of the people” is dangerous, period.
Consider The San Luis Obispo Tribune, which wrote about the death of a jail inmate who was restrained for 46 hours. The account forced the county to change how it treats mentally ill prisoners.
Local newspapers and media houses must not stop their quest for the truth. They must strengthen their resolve, and all Guyanese must stand with them as they hold all Governments accountable.
