CLEMENT Rohee, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), is the latest public figure to rubbish the ‘Dem Boys Seh’ column of the Kaieteur News which recently took a swipe at Town Clerk, Ms Carol Sooba.At the last PPP/C press conference held last Monday at the Party’s Freedom House headquarters, Rohee, who is also Minister of Home Affairs, charged the Kaieteur News with character assassination, and decried the “despicable” level to which the paper has sunk in going public with such a repulsive article.

He said: “The recent attacks on the Town Clerk, Ms. Carol Sooba, cries out for the enforcement of professional ethics and standards in journalism, as this Party has repeatedly called for. The PPP strongly condemns this satire, ‘Dem Boys Seh’, which attacks the integrity of this woman by insinuating that she is a ‘night nurse’, aka a prostitute. How much more of this character assassination and gutter journalism practised by Kaieteur News must the reading public endure?”

Rohee reiterated the sentiments of the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, who described the satire as “a fitting example of the pit into which Kaieteur News has descended,” and lamented that the rest of the media fraternity has lamely commented and responded to this issue.

Rohee said: “As hallowed as the principle of press freedom is considered, in real life, experiences remain a powerful tool for fettering the exercise of press freedom with responsibilities.”

INDEPENDENT BODY
Rohee thinks the incident points to the need for creation of a regulatory body to enforce journalistic ethics. He said: “If the Guyana Press Association is powerless to exert pressure on its members to act responsibly and professionally as journalists, it may be time for a professional independent body to do so.”

He noted that press freedom comes with a code of ethics and responsibilities, both of which are constantly being eroded.

“According to Dr. Luncheon, while Guyanese have become inure to the Kaieteur News’s excesses and occasional apologies, ‘there are outposts in the journalistic world where anarchy still prevails, and Kaieteur News reigns supreme in this regard’,” Rohee said.

He added that the ruling party is convinced that the real fight to rid the Council of Carol Sooba has nothing to do with her qualifications or ability to perform the duties of Town Clerk, but rather with her stand against the high level of corruption within the Mayor and City Council.

Rohee said: “The mayor must be cognizant of that. Very often, the mayor takes advantage of the freedom of the press to write letters on every other subject but the despicable garbage pile-up in the City, which falls under his area of responsibility.

“Perhaps if he had used his qualifications to do the job he was elected to do, Carol Sooba’s appointment may not have been necessary.”

Questioned on attacks involving other public personalities in sections of the media, Rohee maintained that breaches of the journalistic code of ethics in any section of the media is something on which criticism should be focused.
Written By Vanessa Narine