Dear Editor,
I have been looking at the letters written in the SN about the closure of that media house. Most of them neglect to notice the elephant in the room, which is the preponderance of the state owned media in Guyana acting not as state owned media i.e. media owned by all the people in Guyana, but as party in power owned. This year’s budget does, I understand, subvent to the state-owned media, G$500 million!! Elevating the problem from a political/constitutional violation of freedom of speech matter, to a violation of constitutional right of equality.
Our constitution has now been endowed with an equality clause through the constitutional reform process, giving a government media G$500 million of the taxpayers money [all political and ethnic tax payers] to create a media monster which is competing unfairly with the private media, all private media, television, radio and print media, that it is unnecessary for me to elaborate more on it. Just a glance at the international observers’ comments, all of them, of the September 2025 elections, would give any honest person the real reason why the private media is being successfully destroyed by the governments of Guyana for decades. I say governments since from 2015 to 2020 we saw no move by the Granger Administration to privatize the state-owned media, which has been, and is, operating unconstitutionally and therefore unlawfully by depriving our opposition parliamentarians of time on the state media to respond to the governing party when necessary, thereby depriving them of the right to free speech.
In addition, VP. Jagdeo himself then President of Guyana, signed the Declaration of Chapultepec in May 2002. When you sign such a treaty you are obligated to enforce it within your jurisdiction and territory. The Stabroek News is claiming, and I can corroborate it myself from my own personal experience, that the PPP [especially] has no intention of enforcing the provisions of the articles of Chapultepec, which was essentially a treaty protecting press freedoms, and frankly it’s a serious indictment to the international community operating in Guyana, not to criticize it, and condemn it.
In the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago in the court of Justice J. Deyalsingh. Case No. 4789 of 1982 in the matter between Rambachan and Trinidad and Tobago Television Co Ltd [TTT] et al. the charges were that “Refusal of state-owned radio station to broadcast applicant’s pre-recorded speech — Infringement of fundamental right of applicant to express political views and of freedom of expression.” During this case the opposition Trinidadian MP Rambachan, pleaded that as an MP for the opposition {UNC] the ruling party [PNM] refused to give him time to respond to the Minister he was shadowing in Parliament.
The decision in this matter which became the law in Trinidad and therefore in Guyana, is that to quote justice Deyalsingh “I have no doubt in my mind that the fundamental rights of ‘free speech’ demand opening up the television media to political broadcasts. And if Government does not enact regulations for this purpose which accords with the constitution, then the courts must require them of T.T.T. to ensure the securing of the enforcement of those rights. In all the circumstances, this is an exceptional case and this court feels that it should require T.T.T. to prepare and present for the court’s approval a statement of policy regarding political broadcasting taking into consideration the guidelines and findings herein. This court suggests that T.T.T. considers doing so in or after consultation with recognized political parties since consultation in matters affecting vital interests are not only prudent and wise but may also be a matter of necessity. This court indicates here and now that if there is no consultation as suggested, it will invite all recognized political parties through an announcement in open court to appear by counsel and assist the court amicus in its determination of the acceptability of the policy statement. I make it clear that the court will only be concerned with areas of the policy statement, which affects fundamental rights and will not venture, as indeed it must not, on to areas, which lie within the competence of T.T.T.”
So what was finally agreed, was that, parties will be allocated time on the state media in keeping with their seats in parliament, in the case of Guyana, if the government with 33 seats gets 33 minutes on the state-owned media, then the opposition party/s with 32 seats, must be allocated 32 minutes to respond. Remembering always that deprivation of free speech not only applies to depriving someone of their right to speak, it also deprives all who want to hear his opinion an important part of free the speech principle. Not only is this not being enforced in Guyana where the opposition is denied access to the state-owned media, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to free speech, the government of Guyana by subventing taxpayers’ money to create an unlevel playing field denying private media owners of their constitutional rights to fair competition [equality].
In addition, the Stabroek News is claiming that many of the provisions of the Declaration of Chapultepec are not being enforced by Guyana in violation of a treaty to which they have signed. I don’t see how the CCJ can rule against any appeal to what is going on in Guyana today where one by one the private media is being picked off. As for myself, Guyana is so badly fixed, and since at my age I no longer want to be a part of this pantomime, I have decided to leave Guyana and live in Panama. So I guess this will be my last contribution to the Guyana situation. I know that this will be seen as bitter medicine but for democracy to survive, and be seen as surviving, it must be done.