| …incident recreates shadows of a past administrationCapitol News reporter, Gordon Moseley, has been banned from entering the Office of the President, in New Garden Street, and State House, on Main Street.According to Moseley, this latest move is a means of ‘dictating the way Capitol News should cover stories and who should cover those stories.’Yesterday,Nouveau Maillot Psg 2019 Pas Cher, Moseley arrived at Office of the President following an invitation for the coverage of an event but was told that a directive was issued barring him from entering the premises.Moseley, who has been covering presidential assignments ever since President Bharrat Jagdeo was sworn into office,http://www.authenticjerseysnfl.us.com/Authentic-Nike-Arizona-Cardinals-Football-Jerseys/, told Kaieteur News that he was not sure who made the decision to bar him from entering the two premises.Speaking with this newspaper outside the Office of the President, Moseley said that the security at the front gate told him that the directive given to them emerged from the Administration of the Office.The ban, Moseley added, is extended to himself and not the other employees of Capitol News.“I arrived at the Office of the President at around 13:30 hrs for a regular credentials handing over ceremony.The security said that it was pushed back until 15:00 hrs. At the same time they informed me that they have received instructions that I would not be allowed to enter the Office of the President and would not also be allowed to enter State House,” Moseley said.He added that when he enquired why he was not allowed in, the security were apparently clueless.“The security apparently had no clue…One tried calling up different people and eventually he said that the Administration of the Office of the President issued the order.”The senior journalist for Capitol News noted that on Saturday, some of his colleagues told him that Kwame McCoy was calling media houses informing them that he, Moseley, will be banned.“I spoke with the President on Saturday after Kwame McCoy began calling up media houses and telling them that there was a ban on Gordon Mosley from entering OP and State House. The President then said that he knows nothing about this,” Moseley said.During his informal conversation with the President,Maglia Inter Scontata, Moseley said,Boston Celtics Pro Shop, the Head of State even joked that ‘if they ban you then they would have to ban other people.’In a statement issued last evening, Enrico Woolford, Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief, stated that the Administration of Capitol News feels that this ban should be lifted forthwith and that the press be allowed to function within its Constitutional mandate.It is wholly unfortunate, Woolford said, that the Office of the President feels that it must in the spirit of the past regimes over the last fifty years in the country dictate to the press ‘who it likes or dislikes’ covering an assignment.“It is unfortunate, too, that the current administration seeks to distract attention from more salient matters of national interest and lurch from one contretemps with the media to another. It is important, Capitol News feels,Authentic Soccer T-shirts, that the Office of the President should engage in trying to run the country rather than trying to run the media,” Woolford added.Late last evening, Moseley received a letter from Head of the Government Information News Agency, Neaz Subhan, stating that the administration of (GINA) has determined it will withdraw his accreditation for coverage at the Office of the President and State House.The letter stated that the decision was only limited to Moseley and not the other employees of Capitol News.The administration of GINA, the letter states, is inclined to review the decision if the senior journalist issues an apology in relation ‘disparaging and disrespectful’ statements in his letter to the press recently.“This is nonsense! I have never been accredited to cover assignments at these places. This is the first time I am hearing that GINA has to accredit journalists to cover presidential assignments,Maglietta Roma Bambino,” Moseley told Kaieteur News last evening.He pointed out that the decision to bar him for entering the two premises was not taken by the governing administration but instead by GINA.“I do not intend to issue an apology. I was attacked by the president for my coverage of the Caricom Heads of Government summit. That coverage was done for Capitol News and I responded as an employee of Capitol News defending not only myself, but the media house for which I work,” the journalist said.Meanwhile, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) said that it is deeply disturbed by the decision to prevent Moseley from covering assignments at the Office of the President.“The GPA wishes to assure our colleagues that we are exploring all the possible options to have this matter resolved. Aside from claims and counter-claims of biased reporting, we do not believe that any media worker and/or media house should be punished for freely reacting to statements made against them,” the press association stated.If Mr. Moseley was debarred from covering assignments at the Office of the President and State House because of a perceived ‘unbalanced’ story he reported on when President Bharrat Jagdeo met with Guyanese living in Antigua recently, the GPA said, then the decision is both flawed and without merit.“And if, as we have been informed, that the decision was made in reaction to Moseley’s rebuttals of claims that he carried a biased report, the GPA deems this as most oppressive and vindictive.” The GPA is offering to mediate in this matter to find a speedy resolution to what could ‘potentially’ become a grave ‘media infringement’ on the part of the administration.This is the second person that has been banned from covering assignments at the Office of the President by the present administration. Premier Cheddi Jagan had banned Kit Nascimento with interesting consequences way back in 1962.No media worker in Guyana has been accredited by the GINA to cover assignments at neither the Office of the President nor State House.The yearly media passes that this body issues to journalists is only in relation ‘police cordon’ exercises.The media passes that have been issued to reporters states ‘Production of this pass will access the holder, if good and sufficient reason exists, through Police Cordon by the Police Officer or Non-commissioned officer.’ |
