Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said he has taken note of the Guyana Press Association’s concerns regarding interviews he has been giving to persons considered “social media commentators.”
The Guyana Press Association in a statement recently called on Government officials to cease utilising “social media commentators” as journalists.
However, he says he has been engaging media operatives through various press conferences in the past.
The GPA’s statement “reflects their own bias against the Government” , Jagdeo expressed.
“They have access to me, but they wanna tell me who I must speak with now too, and it reflects their own bias against the Government sometimes…. We will make sure that people have access but nobody is gonna tell me who I am going to speak with, I think I earned the right too as a citizen of this country and in public life,” Jagdeo stated during an interview streamed on Facebook. According to the Vice President, these were the same persons who stayed silent when several breaches of press freedom were done under the APNU/AFC.
One example he gave was the passing of the Cyber Crime Act that was passed under the coalition, “now we are getting criticized for that.”
Another instance is when this body stayed silent when there were attempts to rig elections and appoint persons illegally ahead of the Guyana Elections Commission, Jagdeo added. He asserted that the Government is well aware of the media houses who stood up when democracy was threatened and not the so-called “independent press.”
“They stood up when it mattered, they were the voice, the balance voice, the voice of reason, not those psycho funds who would now reinvent themselves and try to portray themselves as guardians of press freedom in this country, it’s sickening, very sickening.”
