HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon reported, yesterday, that Cabinet was “outraged” at the outbursts made by United States (U.S.) Ambassador to Guyana, Brent Hardt, while celebrating this year’s World Press Freedom Day.

According to Dr Luncheon, the celebration, held at the ambassador’s residence, was “attended by the likes of Benschop and Sharma, the ambassador inveigled against the Government of Guyana for not respecting freedom of the press and for, among other things, intimidating the media.”
Cabinet’s visceral responses are understandable in the context of such a “preposterous and outrageous” claim by the ambassador, the HPS said, while addressing his weekly post-Cabinet news conference at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive in Georgetown.
“If intimidation is at work, threats of denials of U.S. visas seem more intimidating to journalists than mere Government criticisms. Cabinet was outraged at the ambassador’s outbursts, particularly when the very actions of the U.S. authorities in the White House, with regards to their own media houses, projects an insight that the ambassador does well in concealing, not highlighting,” said Dr Luncheon.
Furthermore, he said Stabroek News and Kaieteur News continue to assail Guyanese with gross untruths and misinformation.
As Dr Luncheon puts it: “The excesses of Kaieteur News and Stabroek News are legend. This the U.S. Ambassador knows. He claims otherwise and those claims fly in the face of reality. He claims intimidation and to make such a claim as he does is both hilarious and cynical.”
The HPS said the Attorney General’s rejoinders at that event fully represent the Government’s views about the ambassador’s “studied impertinence and double standards.”
Written By Telesha Ramnarine