Dear Editor,
I NOTE with amusement Mr. Gordon Moseley’s response to a letter I wrote in which I noted the Guyana Press Association (GPA)’s biased statement in relation to an incident between the President and Mr. Travis Chase.
Mr. Moseley indicated in his letter that I, as a Chartered Accountant, had “opted to move away from numbers and accounting to join the merry band of propagandists attacking the Guyana Press Association”, and herein lies the problem.
The almost generic response of labelling anyone as a ‘propagandist’ who shares a differing view or calls out the GPA for a biased stance.
Firstly, I watched the interaction in full; my views were based on that and those views have not changed. Hiding under the notion that Mr. Chase asked the President a question in his personal capacity and referred to him previously as the President did not change the reality that it was disrespectful to refer to His Excellency on a name basis.
Additionally, Mr. Moseley posted the transcript of the interaction, which helped even more in highlighting the disdainful tone of the journalist during the interaction. When corrected by the President on how he addressed him, Mr. Chase responded, “hold on, did you observe”.
I might be a lowly Chartered Accountant not versed in the art of journalism, but I am quite sure that telling the President to “hold on” is disrespectful. Mr. Chase then goes on to tell the President that “this is not a confrontation”.
Do I need to go on and mention that after the President rightly told Mr. Chase that he should have respect, Mr. Chase felt it necessary to rudely reply that the President should show some respect.
Perhaps if this was a heated discussion between two friends at the side of the road, it might have been understandable, but are we saying that this is how journalists now address and speak to the Head of State?
After all of that, the GPA felt it necessary to release a statement condemning what it labelled as the “President’s attack on Mr. Chase” without drawing any attention to Mr. Chase’s rude tone while speaking to the Head of State.
We cannot be serious; that is complete bias by the GPA and perhaps if the GPA spent a little less time on defending such actions and just a little more time issuing independent statements, then the public might actually take the legitimacy of the GPA as an independent representative body for media workers seriously.
Warmest Regards,
Terrence Jaskaran
Chartered Accountant