By His Excellency,Stabroek News
Copyright stabroeknews
Dear Editor,
I reject outright the malicious, misleading and blatantly inaccurate article published in yesterday’s Stabroek News in which that newspaper’s Editor in Chief, Mr. Anand Persaud, falsely claimed that the newspaper was not invited to a Press Conference hosted by His Excellency, President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday, September 16, 2025.
The facts surrounding this matter are indisputable. At about 11:00 AM on Tuesday, September 16, 2024, the Office of the President, through the Head of the Press and Publicity Unit, Mrs. Suelle Findlay-Williams, contacted accredited journalists, including Stabroek News’ Ms. Marcelle Fowler, by telephone and extended an invitation to attend the press conference.
All the other invited journalists arrived at the Office of the President and were seated in the Media Room of the Office of the President by 2:30 P.M., with the exception of a representative of the Stabroek News. At this point, Mrs Findlay-Williams immediately followed up with a WhatsApp message to Ms. Fowler, reminding her of the engagement. It was at this point that Ms Fowler informed that her Editor-in-Chief (Mr Persaud) was demanding a written invitation. For Mr. Persaud to now claim that Stabroek News was not invited, while deliberately omitting these facts, is both dishonest and disingenuous.
His assertion that an invitation extended to one of his most senior journalists, who is accredited to cover Presidential engagements, “undermines” the newspaper is an absurdity unbecoming of someone who professes to be a guardian of journalistic integrity.
The Office of the President and the Department of Public Information have, on countless occasions, reached out directly to accredited journalists and extended verbal invitations to presidential and other Government of Guyana engagements, and never once was this procedure questioned.
For Mr. Persaud to now insist that only a written invitation is valid is a poor attempt at manufacturing a controversy where none exists. An invitation, whether verbal or written, once extended by the appropriate authority, is legitimate, and no amount of manipulation can change this fact.
The PPP/C Government has always valued and respected the role of the media in our democracy, and we expect, like every other Guyanese, that journalists will uphold the highest standards of fairness, accuracy, and professionalism. Misrepresenting facts will only undermine public trust in the fourth estate and erode the very democratic principles journalists are meant to uphold.
President Ali and his Government have always been and continue to be open and accessible to the media and, by extension, every citizen of this country, and we have no intentions of retreating from these long-held principles of transparency and accountability that have defined successive PPP/C administrations.
Yours faithfully,
Edward Layne
Director of Public Information
Editor-in-Chief’s note: It is patently absurd for Mr Layne to believe that the Press and Publicity Unit of the Office of the President can decide which reporter from this newspaper would be covering a presidential assignment. That is the sole preserve of the Editor or Editor-in-Chief. It appears that this basic principle has eluded the persons who organized the presidential press conference or the process was overcome by incompetence or a lack of understanding of protocol. The Editor-in-Chief did not demand a written invitation, he required notification to the newspaper in the same manner it was advised on March 26th 2025 of a presidential event with the visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 27th 2025. Stabroek News has since dispatched correspondence to Ms. Findlay-Williams setting out its objection over the manner in which arrangements for Tuesday’s press conference were handled.
