s state-owned media companies

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Legal woes deepened Wednesday for two of Guyana’s state-owned media companies, three privately owned media entities closely associated with Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and Presidential Liaison Kwame McCoy.Last week the state entities admitted to defaming Rickford Burke, President of the New York-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID).The State-owned Chronicle newspaper and National Communications Network (NCN) Television were forced to apologize and retract a story that Burke was arrested in New York for identity theft. The story turned out to be a complete fabrication. Burke was in fact the victim of identity fraud.The falsehood was allegedly fabricated by a PPP supporter in New York and dispatched to President Donald Ramotar’s office.  Ramotar’s public relations liaison Kwame McCoy allegedly disseminated it to State and PPP friendly media.The Guyana Chronicle, NCN Television, Multi Technology Vision Inc., Little Rock Television, Guyana Times, and Kwame McCoy broadcast, published and/or repeated the story on January 30, 2013. Consequently they were each slapped with $20 million libel lawsuits.NCN officials rushed a retraction and apology on air last Friday. The Chronicle sneaked its retraction and apology into its online archives on February 1, Burke said.However Burke’s Attorney, Nigel Hughes, wrote the entities last Tuesday rejecting their retractions on several grounds, including a lack of prominence as the offending article which was published on the front page.He told the parties that in light of their admission of error Burke was entitled to “substantial damages.” The parties were issued twenty-four hour ultimatums to submit proposals for monetary cost for damages, failing which legal proceedings will continue.Brooklyn Attorney Donnell Suares also slapped the publisher of the PPP website Newguymedia.com, Clinton Dubissette of Brooklyn, with a libel lawsuit.CGID spokesman, Jevon Suralie, assailed the editors of the entities, saying “they are vile PPP henchmen whose character assassination plot blew up in their faces.”He said that Burke has battled identity theft since his wallet with identification documents were stolen in 1999.“In January he received a traffic violation summons from NYPD officers. The summons was due to other persons driving under his name and accumulating violations unbeknownst to him. The PPP’s attempt to deceive the Guyanese people by turning the facts on their head is disgraceful,” he contended.Burke’s Attorney, Mark Pollard said, “This is a traffic infraction at best. It could have been resolved by paying a $50 fine but my client is a victim of identity fraud, thus even a small fine is too much for an innocent man.”