THE Government of Guyana is taken aback by an outrageous front page article which appeared in the Kaieteur News of Monday, November 11, 2019, under the headline “Govt. gives out land larger than G/town to a single individual” and has called on the entity to retract the erroneous story.

This article was quickly proven to be wholly and completely false. The government withheld comment in anticipation of a full and unequivocal apology and retraction of the article but with one week having elapsed,none has been forthcoming, the government said in a release on Monday.

“This article does not fall within the realm of journalism. It is pure, unadulterated fake news and unvarnished malicious propaganda. With Kaieteur News having refused to retract the article or apologise for its initial publication, it is evident that this planted article was intended to cause injury and harm to the image and reputation of the Coalition Government.”

The Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana calls on Kaieteur News to withdraw the fake news article and issue an unequivocal public apology. Further, the government calls on Kaieteur News to practise the basic tenets of responsible journalism, to fact check and to verify and validate before publishing what can only be described as a ludicrous article.

“With the growing phenomenon of fake news, the government calls on all media houses to ensure that their reportage is fact based and urges the Guyana Press Association to impress upon its membership their duty to provide credible and factual information to the public. The Coalition Government is proud of its record of promoting press freedom and the right to free access to information in Guyana during its term in office and is committed to ensuring that journalists are not in any way impeded from doing their work. However, the members of the media must hold in equal esteem their responsibility to credible, unbiased and balanced journalism,” the statement added.