Crime, bad governance and Guyana’s image

September 2, 2009

President Jagdeo actually called on the business community to boycott the Kaieteur News when he told them that this newspaper harms the image of the country by sensationalizing crime on its front page yet businesses advertise with Kaieteur News.

Strange, the President of a country should be urging a boycott of a newspaper in his nation when all three opposition parties are boycotting the country’s Parliament.

It means the Government is not seen in good light by the combined opposition which represents almost half of the electorate that voted at the last election.

Let us start with crime. I went to the archives of the Jamaican newspapers and it was not an accurate description that Mr. Jagdeo painted at the Private Sector Commission dinner last Friday. There are many front page stories on crime. They are so numerous that it is not necessary to even dwell on this topic any further.

I went searching the internet and I found that even the British broad-sheets carry violent stories on their front pages, including serious hate-crimes.

Back to the boycott business. If investors should stop advertising with Kaieteur News, can President Jagdeo answer the question - was the reporting on crime the reason his government stopped placing advertisement with the Stabroek News? The answer is no?

Mr. Jagdeo’s explanation was that the Stabroek had less circulation than other newspapers and the state had to get value for its money.

Only Kaieteur News had a larger circulation than Stabroek’s therefore the bulk of the placements should have gone to those two papers with Chronicle being banished.

Now the Guyana Times has joined the Chronicle in getting a majority of the state’s advertising assignments. The conclusion that could be drawn is that it is not the shape of Kaieteur News’ crime reporting that worries Mr. Jagdeo.

It is what the Stabroek News got victimized for in the first place – reporting on bad governance, corruption and incompetence of the Government to stop an escalating crime pandemonium.

The boycott call will no doubt end up in the hands of the human rights group in New York, Freedom House.

Mr. Jagdeo has boasted three times of Freedom House’s classification of Guyana being number 30 on its list of countries practicing press freedom.

What is Mr. Jagdeo going to do and how is he going to feel when Guyana loses that number 30 spot for a miserable categorization? 

I have always maintained that Mr. Jagdeo should study his concepts before he publicly delivers them.

Mr. Jagdeo has found himself in a glaring cul-de-sac when he exclaimed that Kaieteur News is damaging the image of the country and deterring would-be returnees.

I wonder if Mr. Jagdeo knows that in making that assertion he is in fact saying that the Guyana Times and the Chronicle have failed.

In making that indictment against Kaieteur News, the President has actually informed the investors who were listening to him that Kaieteur News reaches a lot of people in and out of Guyana.

Why then should business people not advertise with Kaieteur News?

The very value for money thesis that Mr. Jagdeo used against the Stabroek News has come back to haunt him.

Why should the business community not advertise with Kaieteur News when their profits depend on purchasing power of consumers and other types of buyers and its is common sense for business people to inform buyers on what they have to offer.

A simple example should suffice. I have a new spray that kills mosquitoes more effectively. Why go for an advertisement in the Chronicle rather than the Kaieteur News when the President himself says that the Kaieteur News has an extensive influence on the Guyanese people.

I am sure after they would have eaten their food and while driving home with their spouses, the investors would know which paper reaches a wider audience.

Mr. Jagdeo achieved the opposite of what he intended.

Finally, the automatic question comes to the lips of everyone after they would have read what Mr. Jagdeo said about the negative effect Kaieteur News’ crime reporting has on the country’s image.

What about bad governance?

What about drug-trafficking in Guyana in which only when the big fishes travel abroad they are arrested?

What about the spending habit of some public servants who in just a few years can buy the types of houses only American millionaires could afford?

The truth about what was said at that dinner last Friday night about the Kaieteur News is that the word government was substituted for country.

It is the Government’s so-called image this newspaper is hurting not the country’s.

An image badly tattered by unbelievable and incredible corruption.