– GINA statement
THE Kaieteur News’ suggestion contained in an article published in yesterday’s newspaper that someone in the employ of the Office of the President had knowledge beforehand of the attack on Freddie Kissoon, “is yet another demonstration of its willingness to replace the fundamental tenets of basic journalistic practice with subjective, malicious, misleading, slanderous and propagandistic reporting”.
This was  the strong sentiments expressed in a statement issued last night by the Government Information Agency (GINA).
To simply say that “people are now reporting that early Monday evening, a spokesman in Office of the President telephoned National Communications Network (NCN) asking the Editor, Michael Gordon, to be on the lookout for something big within the hour” without providing any evidence, borders on the level of callousness that we have become accustomed to from the Kaieteur News, the GINA statement said.
GINA noted that Gordon has denied receiving any such call from anyone from the Office of the President; neither did he advise anyone of having received any such call.
“If there are persons at Kaieteur News who are in possession of credible information which points to the involvement of any person for that matter, in the incident, then they have a responsibility as a citizen to first report this information to the police,” the statement said.
“It is not beyond the realm of speculation to assume that the speed at which Kaieteur News formed an opinion as to who may be the perpetrators of the incident could be an indication of its own involvement in a plot to fuel sales through the staging of an attack whilst furthering its anti-Government agenda,” the statement added.
It continued: “Such an assumption cannot be considered unrealistic given that Freddie Kissoon suffered no physical harm and when one considers that it took place at a time when the Kaieteur News was forced to increase the cost of its daily paper in an effort to meet sky-rocketing over-head costs.
“Was it the Government too, that was responsible for the armed attack on Glen Lall and the Kaieteur News that resulted in the death of five pressmen?” the statement queried.
“Blaming the Government or its officials comes naturally to the Kaieteur News as it has developed over time, a daily pattern of going after Government officials, as well as policies and programmes aimed at ensuring our nation’s continued development,” GINA added.
Kaieteur News yesterday reported that “Information is now circulating that someone in the government employ knew long before  hand that there would have been an attack on Freddie Kissoon.