…PM slams Guyana Times article urging violence against President

THE publication of appeals for violence is an abuse of free speech, so said Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in a comment on a recent Guyana Times article.
After accusing President David Granger with “bullyism”, the pro-PPP newspaper asked this question: “Will none of his supporters rid us of their renegade leader – to even save themselves??” (Eyewitness, page 8, August 17, 2019).

Prime Minister Nagamootoo said that on the face of it, this is seditious libel, the publication of which, though sparingly used, constitutes an offence in our existing laws. “The published words are inflammatory, and are calculated to foment and incite violence against a democratically-elected Head of State”, he wrote in his weekly column, My Turn, which was published in the Sunday Chronicle on August 18 last.

This incitement, he said, is coming from an opposition political organ, which is sheltering under the protection of freedom of the press which, under the President David Granger government, has been guaranteed and fully protected.

What Guyana Times is advocating is not free speech but political terrorism, the Prime Minister noted as he alerted organisations such as Reporters Without Borders and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers about this abuse.

He also called on organisations such as the Private Sector Commission to condemn the Guyana Times’ instigation, pointing out that “malicious, criminal and reckless writings are not protected as freedom of speech.” He also called on the PPP to distance itself from what he described as “reckless advocacy” before any harm is done. Besides being a veteran journalist and a former Vice-President of the International Organisation of Journalists (IOJ), the Guyanese Prime Minister holds responsibility for public information and broadcasting.