EDITORS have a serious responsibility in a democratic society. Funny as it may sound, media personnel also have quite a task in authoritarian societies. Few people in the world know this more than Adam Harris. Harris was a senior official at the PNC’s ‘New Nation’ at a time when Guyana was at the mercy of an authoritarian state and PNC governments that came to office by fraud. For the past several years Adam has served as the editor of Kaieteur News.
Before I explain why Adam Harris needs to come clean with the Guyanese people, let me say that I have nothing personal against the man, and this, despite the fact that I do not know him well. I met him once after a session at parliament last year. I also had some conversations with him over the phone and some correspondence via email. All told, he seems like quite a likeable person at the personal level.
The problem for Adam is that we are not dealing with Adam Harris’ personal style. We are interested in his professional conduct.
The matter is straightforward. President Jagdeo stated that Adam was once the top man at New Nation where his job was to formulate and project a good image of the PNC party and  government.
There is no inherent problem in that, excepting that the government was illegal, and hence, the defence of an illegal government is something that one must answer for.
There were other issues, including the fact that there was no real difference between the party and the state, and that the publication was used to paper over gross violations of human rights and economic mismanagement in the country.
All President Jagdeo did was to remind the Guyanese people of Adam’s role at the New Nation. Whatever may be the issues at Kaieteur, there is no doubt that the newspaper has attempted to destroy the reputation of the president.
I will state this simply so no one misunderstands. As the editor of that publication, Adam Harris must take responsibility for writings that can only be characterized as the horribly twisted, vicious, abrasive, truculent, hurtful, shameless and even sadistic. If he is not responsible, then he has not been discharging his professional responsibilities.
The opposition has mastered the art of aggressively attacking anyone who wants to dig up the relevant past from as recently as twenty years ago, while they themselves are allowed to go further back and dig up the 1950s. That dog won’t hunt this time. All the president did was to remind Adam of his past with New Nation. If Adam sees that as a bad line on his resume, then he must be finally getting the democratic spirit.