DPP’S STAND ON KAIETEUR NEWS
THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, has left no doubts about her evident annoyance and disgust with irresponsible and mischievous reports and commentaries that frequently appear in the ‘Kaieteur News.’Known for her alacrity and firmness in rejecting falsehoods in the media, particularly what she considers to be deliberately “malicious,” the DPP’s verbal chastisement in a letter was specifically directed at the Kaieteur News’ editorial of last weekend.
The editorial claimed that although some eight hundred (800) reports of suspicious money laundering had been filed with the Financial Intelligence Unit FIU) since the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act of 2009, “nothing was done”.
Quite on the contrary, rebutted the DPP in her letter of protest to the Kaieteur News, ‘ONLY ONE’ report of claimed “suspicious transaction” had been officially reported by the FIU. What an enormous and alarming difference between that newspaper’s claimed 800 “suspicious” cases and the FIU’s report of just ONE!
Which Guyanese, with a genuine interest in the way forward for this nation’s economic and social development, would be concerned over is why that newspaper—best known for its visceral hatred for the democratically elected government in power—should indulge in this sort of falsehood? Instead, for example, seeking to seriously examine the motives driving the opposition APNU/AFC alliance to maintain withholding support for parliamentary approval of the new 2014 AML/CFT Act?
We are in no position to confirm the authenticity of reports that “protection of self-interest” by political and professional elements who contribute to that newspaper, may well have landed it in its current “falsehood” problem that necessitated the angry but quite professional response from the DPP.
In the meanwhile, as previously reported, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall has successfully filed an injunction against the Kaieteur News for character defamation in two of that newspaper’s “Dem boys seh” column. The AG is seeking $30 million in compensation for the public embarrassment caused by the newspaper.
excerpts from Guyanachronicle