CHAIRMAN of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), Bishop Juan Edghill, yesterday said the commission and its lawyer were looking into racial hostility charges levelled against two local newspapers by the Office of the President. He told the Guyana Chronicle he had received the letter from the Office of the President, in which he was requested by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, to address the issue.
Bishop Edghill said this was not the first time that such charges were brought to his attention, adding that there has been a developing trend towards this end.
He recalled that coming out of a recent ERC Strategic Assessment Project, the matter was brought to his attention by various stakeholders at the grass roots level.
In his letter to the ERC, Luncheon said that within recent days “certain newspapers have published letters and articles that the Office of the President insists are contrary to the laws of Guyana and warrant the attention of the ERC.”
Copies of the letters and articles were sent to the ERC by the Office of the President, requesting the commission to “discharge its mandate to investigate and pronounce on these forms of unacceptable journalism.”
Luncheon referred specifically to articles in the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News in which OP is “contending the authors have been promoting racial insecurity, advocating race-based politics and making vile allegations of racist behaviour against members of the government.”
The ERC Chairman assured that the commission was taking a proactive approach to the situation and had circulated the letters and articles to commission members and the ERC lawyer.
The lawyer, he said, will be pronouncing on the issue, in relation to the law and the commission, as soon as the process is completed.
Edghill said it is anticipated that commissioners will be apprised of the lawyer’s decision at the next statutory meeting which should be held within a week.
He reiterated that the ERC wants to ensure good relations are maintained with everyone in Guyana, adding:  “From no quarter do we want to see ethnic strife.”
The Racial Hostility (Amendment) Act 2002 states that a person shall be guilty of an offence if he willfully excites or attempts to excite hostility or ill will against any section of the public, or against any person on the grounds of their or his race by means of, among other things, “written (including printed) matter or pictorial matter published by him.”
Any person found guilty under the act can be fined $500,000 and jailed for seven years.
The act also states that the proprietor, printer, publisher or editor of any newspaper, or the printer of any other printed document, in which any particular matter has been published, shall be presumed himself to have so published that matter unless he proves that such publication was made without his authority, consent or knowledge and did not arise from want of due care on his part.