Dear Editor,
I am still in shock over Kidackie Amsterdam’s accommodation of a caller who glaringly suggested that
“…President Dr. Irfaan Ali, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, and Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh should be beheaded, and (have) their heads displayed publicly on the seawalls.”
This is so ghoulish, and I think by now it is sinking in that hosts are 100 percent responsible for everything that appears on their social media accounts: from updates and comments to pictures, videos, and links.
This incident reminds me that, just recently (May 2024), a federal judge sentenced a Jacksonville man to 14 months in prison for posting threats online against President Joe Biden and others. The judge was emphatic in telling the convicted criminal that “words do matter,” even as a few friends, neighbours and family members urged the court to be lenient in sentencing, telling the court that he is “a kind-hearted man that got caught up in the political drama of the internet.”
What matters is that Adam Ray Mouser, 40, of Jacksonville will also spend two years under supervised release after his sentence has been completed. I am sure he is much wiser now, and many have been deterred from this kind of behaviour. What is also revealing is that Mouser had initially argued that he had ‘First Amendment’ rights to make such comments, but quickly changed his plea to guilty.
Do I need to emphasize that ‘Freedom of Expression’ can never mean the right to threaten or the call to violence? Thus, I am shocked at the silence of the Guyana Press Association President, Nazima Raghubir. It seems as though the GPA is aiding and abetting Amsterdam, (an overnight activist with the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), who, after the investigation for cybercrime, is now charged and has a date before the Court of Law. All of this followed that hate-filled and controversial episode of his social media program, where he allowed a caller to incite violence against high-ranking Government officials.
What is good is that AG Nandlall, one member of the targeted quartet, pointed out that “…when you have a program and you encourage colleagues, you encourage listeners and viewers to call in and you give them a platform, you are responsible equally with them for what they say, once you offer them that platform. Because had it not been for your (Kidackie’s) platform, they would not have been able to say what they are saying.”
Let me add my voice to Nandlall’s by pointing out that in addition to spreading the reach of hate globally, the Internet also facilitated its growth through the so-called “toxic online disinhibition effect”, meaning that people on the Web are more anonymous, as there are huge distances between perpetrators and victims of hate. In these conditions, people give in to some of their darkest drives and motivations.
The bottom line is that the likes of Kidackie must be stopped, as, during his programme, he not only facilitated the spread of hate speech, but also implicated himself in the criminal conduct of the caller. Why?
As the AG explained, “If you entertain that caller, you are participating in the criminal conduct. And don’t tell me that you don’t know, because ignorance of the law is never a defence,”
The AG delineated that the gravity of the aired content is that the caller’s threats are compounded by the context in which they were made, as he targeted four prominent officials, all of them of Indo-Guyanese descent, raising alarms about the potential for ethnically motivated violence.
Now, Editor, I am one of many in waiting. Kidackie was granted bail and required to lodge his passport with the Clerk of Court pending the hearing and determination of his trial. This matter will come up on June 10, 2024, for statements, and it has been transferred to Acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus for further proceedings. After all, the law must take precedence.
Yours truly,
HB Singh
