A departure from Stabroek News’ previous position
Dear Editor,
In the Editor-in-Chief’s note to a letter, ‘Stabroek News should act to preserve its independence’ which appeared in the Saturday October 12th, 2019 edition of the Stabroek News, the following assertion was made.
“As we have stated before, the columns by Messrs Ramkarran and Jeffrey will continue but no electioneering will be permitted in those.”
Editor I am aware that His Excellency, President David Granger contributed a weekly column to the Stabroek News prior to October 2010. I am advised Editor that in October, 2010 when Mr. Granger allowed his name to be considered as the Presidential Candidate for A Partnership for National Unity he received written correspondence from the Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Anand Persaud, instructing him that his weekly column would be discontinued.
Editor, please note that my information is that Mr. Granger’s column was discontinued by Stabroek News before Mr. Granger was formally confirmed as the Presidential Candidate and was done as soon as he indicated his interest in contesting to become the candidate.
There appears to be a radical departure now from this previous position with regard to the candidacy of Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, the Presidential Candidate of A New and United Guyana.
Further, editor, it is well known that both Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and Mr. Raphael Trotman both contributed columns to Stabroek News some years ago. I am reliably advised that as soon as the Alliance For Change was formed, Stabroek News discontinued both of their columns on account of the fact that they had started a political party.
Again Editor, Stabroek News’ position now to allow Mr. Ramkarran to continue with his weekly column represents a radical departure from Stabroek News’ previous standard when dealing with similar matters.
This about-turn by Stabroek News appears deliberate to allow Mr. Ramkarran a political platform not only to promulgate his party’s position but also to attack political opponents. Once again I call on Stabroek News to either provide equal space to all presidential candidates or to be consistent with its previous action.
Yours faithfully,
Earl Hamilton
Editor-in-Chief’s note: The arrangement which Stabroek News had with Mr David Granger before he became the leader of the PNCR was a confidential one and will not be disclosed by this newspaper.
As it relates to Messrs Ramjattan and Trotman, while Members of Parliament, they were offered column space in this newspaper after they were oppressed by their respective parties: the PPP/C and the PNCR. Those columns were by politicians who were contemplating their political futures and those columns ended in November 2005 after the launch of their party, the Alliance For Change earlier in the year.
Those columns were therefore qualitatively different from the ones penned by Messrs Ramkarran and Jeffrey. The latter two were enlisted for their expertise in a broad range of areas and have been longstanding columnists. Their mounting a political platform does not emasculate their ability to comment on the matters that they have been addressing. No electioneering will be permitted in their columns.
Just in passing, Mr Hamilton evinces great concern about balance and fairness in media coverage of politicians. This zealousness does not seem to extend to the Guyana Chronicle where he is a frequent contributor. That newspaper, as in its previous incarnation, has been exploited by the present government and its leading candidates in their unrelenting drive to retain political office. Perhaps Mr Hamilton might have some luck in encouraging greater balance there.