Vice President and PPP/C General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has dismissed recent claims by Stabroek News Editor in Chief, Anand Persaud that the government is withholding 6 months worth of payment for state ads as a means of stifling press freedom. During his press engagement today at Freedom House, Jagdeo said this is just an extremist view, noting that the independent press receives substantial support from the government.
In providing a breakdown, Jagdeo said Kaieteur News received $202.8 million from the government last year for ads while Stabroek News got $169.1 million. He also shared that the Guyana Chronicle newspaper received $206.5 million while Guyana Times got $157 million.
“Kaieteur News got the largest amount of ads, $202 million, just about $4 million less than Chronicle. So they got paid, Kaieteur News last year, they got paid $170 million and about $32 million is remaining. The Chronicle got paid $148 million or so, so you got about $58 million owed to the Chronicle. So more is owed to the Chronicle than to Kaieteur News,” said the Vice President.
As for Stabroek News, he said they got paid $133 million with about $36 million outstanding. For Guyana Times, it was paid $106 million, with $51 million outstanding.
Jagdeo said, “It gives you the magnitude of money spent on these media houses. This is the figure that was supplied to me today…because I wanted to know, is this true that we are starving people of ads.”
The Vice President said the figures he outlined clearly show that the government makes heavy investments in these entities, irrespective of their editorial policy.
