After more than two years in office, President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Nazima Raghubir finds it troubling that the PPP/C Government is still reluctant to host post-Cabinet press briefings.
Administrations in the past, including the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), have been known to subscribe to the custom of hosting weekly press conferences to update the media fraternity on various decisions and discussions at the level of Government. This is the first time while in office that the PPP/C has strayed from this tradition.
The absence of weekly engagements with the press has been a sore issue for the GPA. There continues to be an information blackout in this regard even though the matter has been raised ad nauseam by Ragubhir.
She told Guyana Standard that the association made inquiries with the Minister with responsibility for Information, Kwame McKoy, and even Head of State, Dr. Irfaan Ali. She noted on those occasions, both officials promised to address the issue. But this has since been to no avail.
“The president made a commitment to have post-Cabinet press briefings but he did not keep that promise. In May 2022, we also spoke about it again at a forum Minister McKoy’s ministry had hosted. We highlighted at that forum that we believe that regular interaction with the media speaks to accountability and transparency,” Raghubir said.
The GPA President also flagged the reluctance of the State to host such meetings as worrying, especially since the issue has been raised since the administration took office. She was keen to note that press engagements with the president at functions only allow for limited questions. She said most times, these sideline interviews last for four to five minutes and do not provide any proper insight into government decisions.
“…it also comes on the heels of the lack of press interviews with ministers and (independent) media houses,” Raghubir said.
In this respect, she said there has been a level of bias given to selected media houses. “The Ministers are picking and choosing which media house they want to engage and there isn’t a wide engagement of the wider media,” the Association President said.
She also expressed concerns with regard to a new trend by Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, granting interviews to social media commentators, rather than having engagements with the press, as he was regularly known to do in the past.
Earlier this week in the National Assembly, the administration was slammed for not hosting regular briefings. Specifically, Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones questioned the “secrecy” of the government in terms of major decisions at the level of Cabinet. Overall, he expressed the view that the government was coming up short on its adherence to the tenants of good governance.
