President says up to Chronicle to hire and fire columnists

By Fareeza Haniff

President David Granger has defended the decision of the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the Guyana Chronicle, Nigel Williams to fire two columnists – Dr David Hinds and labour rights giant, Lincoln Lewis.

“Every Editor must select, must exercise choice, must make decisions and I have not inquired about or into the right of the Editor to make editorial decisions. I don’t know if there was a contract, if the contract was broken, I don’t know if there has been any improper action but as far as I am concerned, all I can see is that an Editor does what an Editor does; he makes the best choices to make sure that his paper is newsworthy,” President Granger told reporters on the sidelines of an event held at State House this morning.

In his support of Williams’ decision, the Head of State said: “I’m sure if you’re running an online medium, you want to make sure you get the best writers and you make choices about which stories are carried and which stories are not carried.”

President Granger made it clear that the Guyana Chronicle is a “public information medium.”

Dr Hinds and Mr Lewis – who are both supporters of the coalition Government – have often times been critical of some of the policies and decisions of the administration.

As a matter of fact, Dr Hinds is an executive member of the Working Peoples’ Alliance (WPA), which makes up a small faction of the APNU+AFC.

When asked, President Granger said he was never upset about some of the criticisms levelled against the Government by the two columnists.

“I am a strong supporter of the free press. I am also a strong supporter of a responsible press. I’ve said this over and over again.”

Both columnists believe that the decision to terminate their contracts with the State-newspaper came from authorities with greater power than the Editor-in-Chief.

As a result of the EIC’s decision, there has been a huge fall out among the Board members of the Guyana Chronicle. Tuesday saw the resignation of three Directors – Tabita Sarabo-Halley, Bert Wilkinson and Karen Davis.

Another Director, Ruel Johnson, intends to submit his resignation today at the Company’s Annual General Meeting. These Directors are all against the EIC’s decision to terminate the contracts of the columnists.

See previous story here: https://admin.newsroom.gy/2018/03/14/fired-chronicle-columnists-call-govt-spiteful-petty/