– says President Granger, urges staff to improve professional training

THE Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL), publishers of the Guyana Chronicle newspapers, received kudos from President David Granger, who told the management and staffers that “you are batting on a good wicket”.

President Granger was the first guest on GNNL’ s inaugural online programme “Vantage Point”, a programme which will be aired today at noon on Guyana Chronicle’s Facebook page.

After his interview with the Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief, Nigel Williams on Thursday, the President took a moment to speak with staff and share his experience as a former employee of the company which, in his days, was called the Guyana Graphic.
“I always had a great love and respect for the newspaper business because that is where I started… it is a bit of homecoming for me because it is the only newspaper company I worked at,” said President Granger.

The President, who started working for the then Guyana Graphic as a journalist at the age of 20 years old, said it was great fun because everyone did their work and knew their deadline, so there was no time to slack on the job. His belief is that being a journalist was the greatest job a young school graduate could have gotten.

“It is a job for which you enjoy tremendous trust from the public… when you go around the country, people will not know what is going on unless you tell them,” he said, adding that in order for journalists to be able to sensitise the population, he or she had to be trained.
He said a journalist could not have put out information unless he or she was bounded by a certain code of behaviour. The President added that every journalist has a social responsibility and the public expects them to be truthful.

“If something is untruthful, I do not expect you to report on it… so similar to the knowledge that a journalist brings to the profession, is the ethical values and truthfulness that matters,” said President Granger, noting that he takes the profession seriously because he does not lie to the media.

TEAMWORK
Another key component of success was teamwork, he said, adding that back in his days the senior journalists would guide the juniors and ensure that they learnt the profession.
In that regard, the President said it is important for GNNL staffers to keep the camaraderie among themselves.

“I will encourage you to have pride in the company, pride in the profession of journalism and you will discover that with your collective commitment, the company could become more profitable and you could be better paid,” President Granger told employees of GNNL.
He believes that the company must get to a level where people must not want to pass 24 hours without reading what the chronicle has to say.

Employees were urged to have faith in the company and to continuously upgrade themselves in order to satisfy and convince themselves that they are performing a function which is essential to the nation.

“It makes no sense you have a newspaper which nobody wants to read, but if you have something that people want to read, it will be great… improving the newspaper is part of your profession and that is what you must aim for,” said President Granger.
The President believes that it is an important time to ensure that the paper maintains a good standard because government has increased “regionalisation” by creating four towns, namely Mabaruma, Bartica, Lethem and Mahdia.

“Sometimes you went into some towns and there was no radio, no television; it was silent, but now they are coming alive and you too are coming alive because you have a studio, so you can convey reports through other mediums,” said the President.

The President further congratulated the Chronicle for maintaining a paper with professional reputation and record, which he personally has “great respect” for.