NO one can deny that there is press freedom in Guyana, full and free. It is too free for my liking because anyone can bask under this freedom, say or write practically anything with little fear of reprisal. Gone are the days of the muzzled press or those times when you could not express a dissenting view to those of the ruling elite without the vindictiveness that was sure to follow. The brutal hand of the PNC was stamped on everything and to say anything otherwise the consequences were dire.

One can recall the days of the Guyana Chronicle newspaper that carried “the truth and nothing but the truth so help me Burnham.” The editor of a leading daily newspaper now calling themselves the “conscience of the people” was the editor of the Chronicle. He knew fully well that the things he wrote at that time were downright lies but he suppressed his conscience and did massa Burnham’s will.
In those days there were no Freddie Kissoons et. al; they just could not exist or Burnham would have seen to it that they do not exist; to speak freely during that time a bounty was placed on your head. During those turbulent years it was only the Catholic Standard that I can vividly remember dared speak up and what a price they paid; history is replete with the morbid stories that befell those people.

So when the naysayers peddle the notion that there is no press freedom in Guyana that is a lie. Today, every Tom, Dick, Harry and Lall Beharry owns and churns out whatever he/she pleases without fear or ill will. What I would ask those who would dare to disagree with me is just take a look at the historical records and you will readily be jolted into reality.