THE Department of Public Information today issued a statement condemning the content of an anonymous letter published by Village Voice. The statement reads:

“Coming on the heels of the recent baseless and spurious claims about the creation of a hostile environment for the media, with press conferences being part of the setting during community outreaches, phantom writers posing as state media operatives are now falsely claiming discrimination in the training regime for the sector.

“This response refers to the letter published on April 9, 2023, by the Village Voice captioned, ‘State Media Journalists Need Support. President Ali left us out in the cold’ and purporting to be from an anonymous source.

“These unimaginative tactics simply provide opportunities for us to expose the cowardly opposition sympathizers masquerading as journalists and thwart their anti-PPP/C agenda.

“The records will show, that while all efforts to reboot and expand the capacity of practitioners and other workers in the state media and more broadly across the full media fraternity in Guyana since 2020 were announced and reported on publicly, we wish to take this opportunity provided to once again iterate the rolling programs and initiatives of the Department of Public Affairs (DPA).

“Between 2020 and 2021, refreshers training sessions were conducted across the entire state media spectrum, including with public relations and communication practitioners within ministries, departments, and agencies of the government.

“In 2022, as part of its World Press Freedom Day invites, the DPA launched the Caribbean’s first Media and Communication Academy in partnership with the world’s leading online learning platform Coursera.

“Through the academy, which is open to all legitimate practitioners locally, more than 300 media workers were registered for courses with world-class certification, with more than 90 successfully completing at least one course by the end of 2022. This is funded by the Government of Guyana through the Department of Public Affairs.

“The academy has also engaged two separate cohorts of new entrants to the media, with almost half of those trained gaining internships, and some employment, with various media houses.

“Significantly also, we have seen dozens of practitioners gaining scholarships to pursue first and advanced degrees at the University of Guyana and with international universities, through the Public Service Scholarships Initiative; and the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) platform, both free capacity building and empowerment initiatives of the government, for Guyanese across every sector of the society.

“In terms of specialized overseas engagements, it is well established that participants are selected on merit and specialization based on the specific nature of those opportunities. In 2021, two persons, one from state media and the other from the private media benefited from training in China through government facilitation.

“As the country continues on its transformational trajectory, the government’s commitment to capacity building and empowerment across all sectors, including the media, will continue to expand and deepen.

“In this regard, actions will continue speaking louder than the words of detractors and those who seek to undermine positive developments to bolster their special interest agendas and relevance ahead of the much-anticipated GPA elections.”