SPEAKER of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland, has called on the online news service, Citizen’s Report, to correct an article. The article in question claims that money from the Treasury was spent on President David Granger’s inauguration.During the examination of the Estimates on August 26, Minister within the Ministry of Education, Nicolette Henry, was questioned on the allocation for National and Other events. Her reply was distorted by Citizens Report. When this was brought to the attention of the minister, she immediately brought it to the attention of the House. The reporter who had filed the story and who was present in the Parliament Buildings at the time, did not correct the inaccurate article.
House Speaker Dr Scotland undertook to review answers given by the minister. He did so and yesterday reported to the House. He told the House that it was brought to his attention that the Guyana Times published an article in the same terms and also a Member of Parliament repeated these assertions on a televised newscast.
“This was unfortunate, since the Speaker had already undertaken to examine the record and make the results of his examinations available to all members of Parliament. I have arranged for the audio to be played so that members can judge for themselves what transpired,” he noted.
The recording was played in the National Assembly. Following this, the speaker made the request.
“I am requesting the online service, through the reporter, to have that report corrected; as for the newspaper, I would leave the newspaper to know how to correct that.
“The member would know what is consonant with truth and for the record, the honour which we undertook here and the discharge of his obligation to the public at large. I would leave that member to determine that,” the Speaker ended.
The Speaker has urged that members of the media report accurately and responsibly when informing the reading and listening public of undertakings in the House.