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This is very dangerous journalism
Dear Editor,
Nothing in the past ten years, yes ten years, in the newspapers of this country has got me more livid than the SN's reporting on the police shooting of Kelvin Nero in its Thursday edition (yesterday).
This report is 180 degrees the opposite of what is reported in the Kaieteur News for the same day. I have a good working relation with the crime reporters of the Kaieteur News.
And believe me, the crime reporters at Kaieteur have a sound network of relationships on the lower East Coast. The story of Kelvin Nero as appeared in the Kaieteur News was based on investigative reporting.
I ask readers to contrast this type of journalism with the angle used by the SN. Nothing in the SN's reporting linked Nero to the killing of little Christine Sukra, who had her temple blown off by a gang of sadistic killers from Buxton, Malika Archer who was a witness to a killing, and policeman Brummel.
Both Brummel and Archer were killed in Buxton. Nero was a suspect in all three murders. Nero has also been linked to several more deaths and countless robberies.
The SN did no kind of investigation. What did they do? In reporting on Nero's killing by the police on Wednesday, the coverage was devoted to what Nero's friends and relatives had to say.
Sadly we have retuned to the terrible days when policemen murdered by bandits were derogated and bandits killed by policemen were made into angels.
One would have thought we left that despicable era behind because it led to mayhem and the slaughter of brave cops. The SN's coverage of Nero's death is a sympathetic picture of a man who many journalists and police know is a character that is far from the one the SN painted. Almost an entire page is devoted to what the eyewitnesses said about how Nero met his death.
How could this be acceptable journalism? Why the extensive coverage given to persons who by reason of their relation with Nero were bound to say he was a law biding citizen.
Where is the response from the police's public relation department? One of the things about the crime situation in Buxton is that the killers are well known.
They walk around with their big guns in full view of Buxtonians. Those who were brave enough to identify them have been killed.
I am asking the Guyana Press Association, the GHRA and other Guyanese organizations, to examine the juxtaposition of the two reports and see the danger in the type of journalism that comes from the SN.
All those who were aggrieved over the death of Christine Sukra, all those who feel that Buxton-based criminals are endangering the fabric of this country, must demand more responsible journalism than the dangerous type we see in yesterday's SN. It is time we in the print media agitate for a monitoring committee.
The one-sided, subjective, pro-criminal reporting we find on the talk-shows and in some private media houses, has found its way into the print media. Let's move to stop this sordid descent in the print media.