Government of Guyana response to KN publisher’s statement “to stand by him”

Georgetown : The Government of Guyana in a statement has noted the call by Mr. Glen Lall, owner of the Kaieteur News, on October 5 for people to stand by him and his newspaper.

The statement says “As much as Mr. Glen Lall may wish to confuse the public that this is an issue of press freedom, in fact, the matters for which he seeks support have nothing to do with the right to freedom of expression.

Rather Mr. Lall is asking the Guyanese public to support the following unlawful activities:—

–tax evasion of millions of dollars;

-attempting to pervert the course of justice by blackmailing his opponents to drop the charges;

-manipulating the Georgetown Municipal Council for non-payment of rates and taxes;

-stealing electricity from the GPL;

-maligning people and threatening to expose private and personal matters of his “perceived opponents” in order to have his unlawful activities dropped.

The call has been publicly supported by the A.P.N.U. and the A.F.C.! Would Mr. Ramjattan and Mr. Granger now call on the Guyanese public to support Mr. Lall for the specific crimes he has been accused of?

Aren’t the opposition parties condoning Mr. Lall’s illegal activities? Aren’t they saying to “john public” that it is alright to follow Mr. Lall’s lead and be accountable to no one?

One would have thought that the opposition political parties would have been more judicious and distanced themselves from supporting such unlawful activities, especially as they have grand designs of being in government one day.

One has to wonder if this is the kind government they will offer the Guyanese people? Once again the friends of the opposition are above and beyond the law merely because it is their friends!

So blind is their hell bent onslaught on the government that they are willing to support tax evaders and maligners in order to bring down the government.”