There was no attempt to interrupt the reporter from asking her question

Dear Editor,

I FEEL compelled to respond to the allegations made by the Guyana Press Association President, Ms Nazima Raghubir, regarding the presidential outreach held at Leonora between March 30 and March 31.

As a writer, I know that the

PPP/C government believes and embraces press freedom as well as all other freedoms enshrined in the constitution. But I also know that no freedom is absolute; they do have limits.

A Code of Conduct for the press, for example, requires balanced (or impartial) news coverage and news analysis. As far as practicable, a responsible journalist will also fact check information before having it published.

Let us put the Leonora outreach in its proper context. It was the first time in Region Three, where a press conference was held (comprising the President, his Cabinet, support staff from other essential government agencies and the Guyana media) in the presence of a diverse group of residents.

The environment was completely different from other press conferences where only the press and either the government or the opposition parties, and sometimes with visiting dignitaries and local and foreign executives, were in attendance.

I am not sure if media representatives understood the special setting for the press conference. Were their expectations, for example, similar to those of the regular press conferences in which they participate?

Did they understand that some of the residents at that press conference were from the same home village as the President?

Did they make any allowance that the residents’ emotional connection with the President is strong? The residents view the President as their champion. And to question the President about a topic which they do not consider as a top priority, did not go down well with them.

According to Ms Raghubir, the first question asked by one of the media houses was related to the oil and gas sector and it was greeted by someone in the audience with a sigh of “Oh Lord!”

Just imagine that Region Three residents went there anxiously waiting to hear about their house lot applications, their markets’ upgrade, their roads and bridges to be fixed, their flooding to stop, their job training, their assistance in farming, etc…, and the first thing they heard from the press was none of those pressing issues, but a question on oil and gas, which was not their immediate concern. I watched other residents expressing their frustration with the question.

Ms Raghubir regarded the person’s remark as disrespectful. I share a different view.

That person wanted his problem to be resolved and he knows that the press cannot do that, but the President can. This approach helps to understand his behaviour. I do not support any form of uncivil behaviour.

But to imply that it was orchestrated behaviour is unfortunate. Rather, it was a spontaneous act, something over which the President had no control. The defining word of “heckler” is certainly out of context.

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