Amid an explosive phone conversation in which Attorney General Anil Nandlall was heard alluding to possible violent retaliation against Kaieteur News over its reportage, the government yesterday stated its commitment to freedom of the press but accused the newspaper of blackmail tactics to stave off a tax audit.

Nandlall’s conversation with KN reporter Leonard Gildarie two Saturdays ago has ignited a firestorm of controversy and the government has been buffeted by calls to sack the AG over the statements he made.

Nandlall has not responded directly to the content of the conversation except to say that it was a private one and it has been distorted. The government maintained this line yesterday and had nothing to say about the mounting calls for Nandlall to be sacked. It however launched an attack on KN, accusing it of unprofessional and unethical reporting.

“Regrettably, over the years, the Kaieteur News has been engaged in an unwavering and institutionalised policy of journalism, lacking in professional and ethical tenets, but steeped in fabrications, distortions, character assassination and homophobia. The prime targets have been the Government, Government Ministers, senior functionaries of the State, sections of the business community, religious organisations, sections of the labour movement and sections of the civil society supportive of the government and indeed anyone with whom the newspaper publisher has a personal grievance.

“Headlines are frequently enlarged and inaccurately sensationalised to scandalise issues and persons and are often times, not borne out by the stories to which they relate, even as distorted and inaccurate as those stories themselves are.

“A column within the newspaper which is supposedly satirical, bearing the colloquial caption “Dem boys seh” has been used as an instrument to publish the vilest, most libellous and homophobic sentiments of and concerning hapless citizens”, the government statement said.

It added that attempts by those aggrieved to solicit apologies, retractions or clarifications from the newspaper are met with further abuse and sometimes with greater intensity. The government statement said that in those circumstances, the affected persons are forced to approach the Court for protection.