THE following is a statement issued late yesterday by Press and Publicity Officer to the President, Mr Kwame McCoy regarding his participation in a meeting held Saturday by the fledgling Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC). “The INEWS account of my participation in yesterday’s (Saturday, March 7, 2015) meeting of the controversial GNYC is obviously misleading, mischievous and designed to support the biases of certain executive members of this association against me.

“Apart from their known political affiliation to Opposition political parties, those members displayed disdain and intolerance for questions surrounding the lack of broad-based youth representation of the organisation, funding for their elections project, and overall transparency and accountability issues.
“It must be emphasised that my participation at the meeting was on the basis of being a legitimate representative of youth, as Chairman of the National Youth Parliament of Guyana (NYPG) and Executive Director of the Guyana Youth Development Association (GUYDA). At no time did I represent the interest of any political party, or had an anti-youth agenda.
“Therefore it could only be for the purpose of being mischievous that INEWS would interpret my right to seek information on the work and activities of the this controversial body, as disruptive, especially given that INEWS, in its very article, said that the meeting was for the purpose of providing information to participants.
“In its haste and anxiety to be mischievous, INEWS inaccurately attributed words of another participant to me. At no time did I accuse the Chair of the meeting of taking cues from Mark Ross; it was another participant who made this observation. Again, INEWS perpetuated its anti-Kwame agenda by refusing to report that the Georgetown Chambers representative verbally abused me as I was exiting the meeting area, pointing her hands in my face and shouting at me. There are several witnesses to this incident and there is an actual recording as well.
“There is an increasing pattern of intolerance by the Opposition and its affiliate organisations to dissenting views which results in them attacking individuals who gave maximum effect to their right to freedom of expression.
“If INEWS considers itself as having any integrity, it would retract its misleading article immediately. INEWS appears to be competing with the Kaieteur News for sensational journalism.”