MMU launches probe into racial incitement by Kaieteur News
March 17, 2015 By
GECOM Chairman
Dr Steve Surujbally
Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally said the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) has launched its investigation into the claims that the Kaieteur News and DTV Channel 8 violated the Racial Hostility Act.
The Chairman stated that the MMU has been consistently recording data about similar infringements and will subsequently be conducting investigations into the incidents.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Executive Secretary Zulfikar Mustapha recently informed the MMU about two instances where the media, particularly the Kaieteur News and DTV Channel 8, blatantly violated the Racial Hostility Act.
When questioned about the consequences those media entities can face as a result of their actions, Surujbally expressed his preference not to speculate on the topic. Instead, he affirmed that once it was found that the Racial Hostility Act was violated, then the law should take precedence.
AFC Executive Member Veerasammy Ramayya
Meanwhile, as highlighted by Mustapha, DTV Channel 8 had aired a programme on February 28 entitled “Alliance on the Move”, during which Alliance For Change (AFC) Executive Member Veerasammy Ramayya made statements labelling the PPP/C as an “Indo-Guyanese Party” and indicated that it was conducting a campaign against “Afro-Guyanese”.
Furthermore, Mustapha said Ramayya then proceeded to make statements that peddled untrue information of a racist nature.
Similarly, the Kaieteur News, in its March 10 edition, carried a headline which Mustapha deemed as one of the “most glaring infringements” in the local media.
On the date mentioned, the publication had as its headline “Rohee endorses Jagdeo statement that PPP/C is a ‘coolie people’ party”.
According to Mustapha, there was no corresponding article to that headline. He also stated that the former President Bharrat Jagdeo then complained to Kaieteur News Editor Adam Harris about the situation.
PPP/C Executive Secretary Zulfikar Mustapha
Reports indicate that Harris then replied that the published headline was the doing of Kaieteur News owner Glenn Lall.
The Racial Hostility Act Chapter 23:01 states that “a person shall be guilty of an offence if he wilfully excites or attempts or excite hostility or ill-will against any section of the public or against any person on the ground of their or his race –
(a) by means of words spoken by him in a public place or spoken by him and transmitted for general reception by wireless telegraphy or telegraph;
(b) by causing words spoken by him or by some other person to be reproduced in a public place from a record;
(c) by means of written (including printed) matter or pictorial matter published by him…
(4) For the purpose of this section, the proprietor, printer, publisher or editor of any newspaper, or the printer of any other printed document, in which any particular matter has been published, shall be presumed himself to have so published that matter unless he proves that such publication was made without his authority, consent or knowledge and did not arise from want of due care on his part.”
Kaieteur News owner Glenn Lall
