Friday, July 18, 2008

President says Press Association more hostile to Gov’t than Opposition Party

In an interview yesterday with the National Communications Network (NCN), President Bharrat Jagdeo said he does not have much time to waste on comments being made by Caribbean and local media persons on the recent banning of Capitol News reporter Gordon Moseley from the Office of the President and State House, as he is adamant that some reporters are totally biased against the Government.

“We have a Press Association that has demonstrated its bias against the Government on numerous occasions. In fact, it is even more hostile to the Government than the Opposition party. It is like the new Opposition in Guyana and they consistently mislead the international community. They did this on several occasions,” he asserted.

The President added that this was done again with the current ongoing issue with media reports stating that Moseley was censured because of an article he wrote.

“I don’t have time to waste on people like Gordon Moseley. Access to this office is a privilege, and I will extend that privilege to ordinary people, not to some people who, regardless of what you do, only see the negatives and they’re looking for the next story,” he said.

Referring to two meetings he had yesterday with religious Leaders in Buxton and the Foulis Housing Co-op Society, the President said these are the people he will focus his attention on and will provide assistance for.

“Those are the people who will have privileges to come to my office. They have more a right, not so much of a privilege….what we have in this country is a syndrome where many very powerful people in our society ‘suck up’ to reporters because they’re afraid of bad press. They call them and they treat them well…I don’t care whether Gordon Moseley or others write bad things about me, once it’s objective it’s fine, and even if it’s not objective, I don’t pay too much attention to it,” he stated.

President Jagdeo told NCN that his responsibility is to serve the people of the country and to deal with their well-being. He noted that he needs to deal with serious issues like the cost of living and making sure that the economy functions.

“I have to meet with ordinary people to try to solve their problems. I’m not going to ‘suck up’ to this group of people, so nothing that we do in this Government, the PPP Government, or I do will find a favourable voice in some of these reporters. They’re hostile. They see themselves as anti-Government media and they will try to make a story out of even the most positive things,” the Head of State contended.

Alluding to the reports provided by the reporter on the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Antigua, the President maintained the position that the reports were biased and captured the only two negative incidents at the meeting.

“We had two hours of an entirely positive meeting with mainly Afro-Guyanese people - my people. When I say my people, I mean Guyanese people. The only two incidents they portrayed were negative ones, but they have a right to do that so I’m not going to have my Government ‘suck up’ to media people because they’ve lost any ability to be objective,” President Jagdeo said.

The President said the media will continue to be negative and he will continue to do what he has to do, and what he was put to do; and that is, to serve the country and ordinary people who have a right to his office. (GINA)

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