A FREE press is a fundamental human right and not a privilege granted by Governments and ruling bodies. On 3 May 1991, the UNESCO General Conference, held in Windhoek, Namibia, endorsed the principles of press freedom, known as the Windhoek Declaration.The current Government, upon accessing office in 1992, immediately began setting to right the many wrongs in society, including the provision of the requisite freedoms conferred on the citizens by constitutional guarantee. The commitment to press freedom is ingrained in the psyche of the PPP, which, as a political party that has suffered unimaginably from the denial of this basic human right, has given the media fraternity great latitude to exercise their right to unimpeded information dissemination.
However, with every human right enshrined in the laws of the land comes concurrent responsibility and adherence to the tenets of journalism, with truth being a prevailing factor, and this is mandatory for every media operative to practise in order to sustain and retain individual credibility and the credibility of his/her media house.
The press is a powerful medium that can help to shape and transform society. Within the Guyana landscape, this was recognised by leaders of our past who greatly harnessed the press, initially through sole ownership by the colonials, and subsequently through severe restrictions on the tools and materials of the trade and muzzling journalists – either by threats and/or elimination, as happened to Catholic Standard photographer, Father Darke, who was stabbed to death by Bilal Ato, member of the House of Israel, which was an organisation that acted as enforcement arm of the dictatorship under the Forbes Burnham’s regime.
The current administration has therefore allowed great leverage for media houses to operate at will, which, sadly, has been overwhelmingly abused by media hostile to the Government. Instead of information dissemination, they instead peddle misinformation, distortion of facts, and even, at times, outright lies.
The industry has been commercialised and degraded to such an extent that it has become a tool to exact revenge on perceived enemies and to destroy the character and credibility of entrepreneurs and their businesses and/or products for rival business houses. The advertising dollar is king and dictates the direction of the moral compass of some private media houses, to the extent that fiction has become fact in the psyche of the nation in many instances – so powerful a tool is the free press; and so morally depraved is most of the private media in Guyana.
In some other societies, journalists are persecuted, and even killed, for defending the truth; but defending the truth seems to be an alien concept for some media operatives who are abusing the freedoms that have been conferred on them by the PPP/C Administration.
They override every tenet of principled journalism, disregarding the fact that the principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec, adopted by the OAS Hemisphere Conference on Free Speech in Mexico City on March 11, 1994, decrees the following:
A free press enables societies to resolve their conflicts, promote their well-being and protect their liberty. No law or act of Government may limit freedom of expression or of the press, whatever the medium.
Because we are fully conscious of this reality and accept it with the deepest conviction, and because of our firm commitment to freedom, we sign this declaration, whose principles follow:
1. No people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant; it is an inalienable right of the people.
2. Every person has the right to seek and receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely. No one may restrict or deny these rights.
3. The authorities must be compelled by law to make available in a timely and reasonable manner the information generated by the public sector. No journalist may be forced to reveal his or her sources of information.
4. Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly.
5. Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press.
6. The media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favoured because of what they write or say.
7. Tariff and exchange policies, licenses for the importation of paper or news-gathering equipment, the assigning of radio and television frequencies and the granting or withdrawal of Government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.
8. The membership of journalists in guilds, their affiliation to professional and trade associations and the affiliation of the media with business groups must be strictly voluntary.
9. The credibility of the press is linked to its commitment to truth, to the pursuit of accuracy, fairness and objectivity and to the clear distinction between news and advertising. The attainment of these goals and the respect for ethical and professional values may not be imposed. These are the exclusive responsibility of journalists and the media. In a free society, it is public opinion that rewards or punishes.
10. No news medium nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth or criticising or denouncing the Government.
In the Guyana landscape, the Government has fully endorsed and kept faith with these principles, but has had to contend with a hostile private media that do not see it incumbent upon their journalistic ethics to report the news as it unfolds – fairly and accurately.
With every right in a democracy comes requisite responsibilities; but the irresponsibility displayed in several media operations in Guyana has generated at times tragic consequences in our country and caused this country much grief and developmental retrogression.