A valuable contribution to national life
(As part of observances for its 30th anniversary, Stabroek News will be reproducing snippets from its earlier years on page four of each day’s newspaper.) THE ‘Stabroek News’ was officially launched last Saturday with assurances from the Guyana Government that the State was committed to developing a climate conducive to the sharing of ideas.
Senior Minister of Information and the Public Service, Yvonne Harewood-Benn, who represented President Desmond Hoyte at the launching ceremony, said, “we expect criticism, but we think that it should be pointed, persistent but principled.” The newspaper, she said, was ‘a very valuable addition - to our national life” and added, “I believe this is a sincere attempt to contribute to our national development.” This view, she said, was also shared by President Hoyte. INITIATIVE The Guyana Government welcomed the initiative by Guyana Publications Limited, publishers of the ‘Stabroek News, in launching the newspaper, Mrs. Harewood-Benn said. She recalled Hoyte’s declaration at last July’s annual conference of Guyana’s Heads of Overseas Missions that economic development had to be accompanied by a “certain intellectual climate” and said “we cannot develop if thoughts are inhibited and ideas snuffed out.”
‘Stabroek News’ is the first privately-owned nonparty newspaper to emerge here since 1974 when the ‘Guyana Graphic,’ owned by the Thompson Group, was sold to the Government.
Present for the launching ceremony were Managing Editor, of the ‘Barbados Advocate, Neville Grosvenor, Managing-Director of the ‘Trinidad Guardian, ’ Mark Conyers, Managing Director of the ‘Trinidad Express’ Ken Gordon, Harold Hoyte, head of the ‘Barbados Nation,’ General Manager of the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) Harry Mayers and Ainsley Sahai, Executive Officer of the Caribbean Publishing and Broadcasting Association (CPBA). Miss Barbara Haig, of the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, which has provided a grant to pay the printing costs in Trinidad because of foreign exchange difficulties, was also here. Miss Haig is the daughter of former United States Secretary of State, General Alexander Haig.
CEREMONY Members of the diplomatic corps, media personalities, businessmen and opposition parties’ representatives were also at the ceremony.
Mr. David de Caires, Managing Director of Guyana Publications Limited, said the presence of the pressmen from the Caribbean indicated that they saw the emergence of the ‘Stabroek News’ as the return by Guyana to “the fold of the free press in the Caribbean.” He added, “the private press is being born again in Guyana.” The owners, he said, started the newspaper because they believed a vibrant, independent press was “absolutely necessary” in a modern civilisation.
“We intend to maintain a delicate balance in a highly polarised society,” de Caires, said, but emphasised, “we feel free to tell the truth as we see it.” There is a tendency on both sides of the political divide to push us off our balance,” he said, “but we will resist this.”
He indicated that in the final analysis the paper’s usefulness would depend on its objectivity and professionalism and their ultimate guide would be the national interest as they conceived it.
Mrs. Harewood-Benn, responding to Mr. de Caires who disclosed that ‘Stabroek News’ had encountered difficulties in getting interviews with people on “even the most innocuous issues” as they had lost the habit of being interviewed and speaking out freely, said “when people are convinced that you are just and fair, I do not think you would have a problem with interviews.”
“We expect you would be lively but just,” she said. ‘Stabroek News’ had President Hoyte’s “very best wishes,” HarewoodBenn said and added that Government welcomed the initiative by Guyana Publications Limited in opening the newspaper.
‘Trinidad Express’ Managing Director Ken Gordon described the launching of ‘Stabroek News’ as a “catalyst that can take Guyana forward” but he warned “a free and independent press has serious responsibilities, particularly in the developing world.” INTEREST The event, he said, “goes well beyond the launching of a new newspaper - the audience here is a small part of the people who are watching you...the rest of the free world as following this launching with interest.”
The ‘Trinidad Express,’ which currently prints the ‘Stabroek News,’ and other sections of the Caribbean media were partners
rather than supporters of the new Guyana newspaper, Gordon said.
“We are ready and willing to support you as long as you need us,” he added but said he was impressed with the attitude of selfsufficiency the newspaper and Guyanese had adopted.
Gordon said the ‘Stabroek News,’ had committed and hard-working people behind it who were prepared to make sacrifices necessary but he advised that the “performance over the long haul is what really matters.”
The entire print of the ‘Stabroek News’ first commercial edition of December 5 was sold out within two hours after the newspaper went on sale and the company was unable to meet the demand for issues of its November 21 complimentary run.