Christopher Ram parts ways with Stabroek News -- over contentious Business Page article
Written by Imran Khalil , Sunday, 14 July 2013 00:22, Source
CHARTERED accountant and attorney-at-law Christopher Ram has parted ways with the Stabroek News after twenty years of pro-bono service as a business columnist for the newspaper’s Sunday edition.
Christopher Ram
The split came in the wake of a very public spat between Ram and the Stabroek News editors over a controversial column penned by Ram.
In his ‘Business Page’ piece of Sunday, May 5, 2013, headlined “On the Line: 2012 Annual reports of Caribbean Container Incorporated, Sterling Products Limited and Guyana Stockfeeds Incorporated”, Ram had suggested that Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Ronald Webster, had improperly acquired a majority stake in local packaging manufacturer Caribbean Container Inc (CCI). In the same piece, Ram also insinuated that Webster had been in possible contravention of the Companies Act.
A few weeks after the publication of Ram’s piece, the Stabroek News carried an apology in its June 11 edition, retracting the statements made by its columnist and offering an “unreserved apology to Mr. Webster.”
Ronald Webster
“Stabroek News is now in receipt of correspondence showing that the basis of these implications is erroneous,” the newspaper had stated in its apology, adding: “The relevant disclosures were made in at least one Annual Report of the company [CCI] concerning Mr. Webster’s shareholding.”
Ram’s eventual decision to sever ties with the newspaper was predicated by its decision not to publish the chartered accountant’s rejoinder to Webster’s initial response to the column. Ram’s rejoinder was submitted subsequent to the newspaper’s public apology to Webster.
“After dispatching Mr Ram’s letter (rejoinder) to our lawyers for an opinion on June 26, 2013, we received written advice from them dated July 2, 2013 [and] their view was that we should not publish Mr Ram’s letter for reasons which were set forth,” Stabroek News stated, adding: “We accepted that advice.”
His rejoinder was, however, published on June 30 by another newspaper.
“Those who read it (the rejoinder) would have noted that it was structured so that every relevant assertion on the one side was juxtaposed with factual statements extracted from the public records of and concerning CCI’s shareholding on the other,” Ram insisted.
Ram, who also teaches law at the University of Guyana, took umbrage with Stabroek News’s apology, which stated that his statements against Mr. Webster were “misguided and erroneous.”
“In an effort to protect my reputation as a business practitioner and attorney-at-law, I have no option but to cease writing Business Page for your newspaper, risking further uninformed rebuke,” he stated in his letter of resignation, which was carried publicly in Stabroek News’s “Letters to the Editor” section.
Ram, whose “Business Page” has long been a fixed feature on Page 12 of the Sunday Stabroek, is no stranger to controversy. His windy and often numbers-laden analyses have frequently thrust him at the centre of national policy debates.
He has indicated that he may continue to play a part in public discourse. “Depending on my assessment of its usefulness, I may seek another outlet to share my thoughts with the public,” Ram stated.
He might be considering the Kaieteur News, which prominently featured the contentious rejoinder after Stabroek News declined to do so.
“We regret Mr. Ram’s decision, but would like to express our gratitude to him for his many contributions to Business Page over the years,” Stabroek News stated in response to his resignation.