“We must be constructive and not destructive
Editorial
Kaieteur News
January 1, 2005
Happy New Year! On this the first day of the 2005, Kaieteur News has opted to make a comment.
The publisher of the Kaieteur News, Mr. Glen Lall, promises readers a better paper this year. This means that we will continue to challenge ourselves to bring you the breaking news before any one else does; this means that readers will benefit from more informed commentaries and features; this means that we will extend the range of our coverage.
It also entails us striving for greater accuracy and fairness in our reporting. We look forward to your feedback and your continued support in this New Year.
This front page commentary, however, is about a much more important issue concerning the media - it concerns our professionalism. Guyana has suffered for too long because of lawlessness in the media and there continues to be unheard cries for responsibility.
While the print media have avoided the excesses of its counterparts in the electronic media, it behoves all newspapers to behave in a responsible manner.
The hall-mark of any media organization is objectiveness and independence. A news organization must seek at all times to be fair and unbiased in its delivery of news. But in recent times, certain tendencies have begun to creep into local newspapers. We refer here to what is called “bashing” - the tendency to undeservedly and repeatedly go after personalities and agencies without regard to elements of professional restraint and sound judgement.
This newspaper will not bury its head in the sand and deny that it has never been guilty of similar infractions. However, we will correct ourselves whenever we slip-up.
This newspaper will continue to place curbs on slanderous and unnecessary personal attacks on citizens. While we continue to hold public agencies accountable for their performance, we will listen carefully to the explanations forthcoming from those agencies and fairly assess the excuses being made.
There is too much “bashing” taking place in the media.
For this New Year we should all resolve to reduce this nuisance. We expect that our fellow newspapers, the Stabroek News and the Chronicle will take heed and collectively we will all be mindful of the need for professional and responsible journalism.
Before we judge others, let us put our houses in order. We have a special duty to inform and enlighten our readers. In the process of informing our readers we must be extra-careful we do not mislead them. It is from the media that many citizens form their own judgments of situations in the country.
Ours is therefore a sacred responsibility not to be taken lightly.
Kaieteur News reserves the right to criticize our sister newspapers, in as much as we respect the right of those newspapers to call us to task. If criticism is done in a constructive manner, rather than aimed at destructive ends, it will serve the truth which is what we pursue and defend.
On Christmas day, a large fire destroyed the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Main Street . The fire started in a crib within the church and quickly engulfed the entire structure along with the adjoining presbytery and the Sacred Heart Primary School .
The Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church was a historic building that formed part of our national heritage.
For exactly one hundred and forty three years, the Sacred Heart Church had been admired for its architectural beauty. Being made of wood however, it was, as are most other similarly constructed edifices, vulnerable to fire.
There can be no doubt that our local fire service is in need of better equipment. There is no disputing that over the years, the local fire service has been found wanting on many occasions, yet this very fire service has gallantly fought many fires and in the process saved many buildings from going up in flames.
They deserve our praises whenever they do a good job. Unfortunately, our sister newspaper the Stabroek News has taken to public bashing of our fire service. The level of reporting by that newspaper of the fire borders on being unethical and has inspired this comment.
In its Tuesday edition, the Stabroek News reported on what the priest said. He indicated that in his estimation it took between ten to twelve minutes for the fire service to arrive after the fire started.
Yet, in an editorial yesterday, the Stabroek News continues to speak about an eighteen- minute response.
This alleged eighteen minute times is premised on the priest's statement that the fire started at 8.50. He was however not precise. The fire chief has said that the first call at 9.08. The priest of the church estimated the time from when the fire started (not when the call was made) to when the tenders arrived to be between ten to twelve minutes. If the priest is correct, this would mean that the fire started after the estimated 8.50am because twelve minutes from 8. 50 would be 9.02.
And according to the fire chief, the first call was received at 9.08 am. These are the discrepancies and important details that professionals in the media should be more careful about, since it leads to flawed assumptions.
There can be no excusing poor response times in cases of fire, but those who hold public services to exceptional standards must also ask themselves what was their response time to the many stories that they missed and which had to be carried by the Kaieteur News and other media houses. What was their response time to a fire, doors away from them when Metropole Cinema went up in flames? At what time were their reporters on the scene?
The fire service has its faults but it must not be made into a public scapegoat over the destruction of the Sacred Heart Church and primary school. We must stop the unfair bashing of the Fire Service.
It was rather unfortunate to note the sarcasm in the pictorial reporting of the Stabroek News of Thursday December 30. In one frame, they showed a picture of the fire chief on a telephone and underneath was the explanation that the picture was about the fire chief directing the operations at the fire. In the background, they showed volunteers pushing a vehicle to safety. The subliminal message that readers may draw from that picture is that here in the midst of the fire was the fire chief on his cell phone while volunteers are saving vehicles. This reporting was rather unfortunate, to say the least, because it conveys the wrong impression about the head of the Guyana Fire Service.
We must all strive in the New Year to be true and loyal to our profession, to present the truth unvarnished and unembellished. Our judgment of issues must be sober and matured and we must seek to be constructive rather than destructive.
If we continue in this vein of only seeing the glass half empty, instead of half full, we may never be able to drink from it.