Guyana President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday sought to assure media operatives and citizens that the Government has no intention of using modern technology such as spyware to monitor their activities.
He gave the promise as he addressed members of the media fraternity at the start of the two-day National Conference and Symposium hosted in observance of World Press Freedom Day.
President Ali’s statement came after President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA) Nazima Raghubir called on the administration to assure journalists and media houses that it will not utilize spyware like Pegasus, against the background of allegations made in Trinidad that the government there had been using that Israeli-manufactured program.
“This government has no intention, whatsoever; it has not even contemplated my mind to move in any direction to have any spyware. I have not even imagined something like that, it will never happen, at least under this government,” Ali said.
He added that under the democratic construct of a free society, no government should be spying on its population, noting that, “wherever it exists, it should be rooted”.
The President emphasized that his PPP/C administration believes in freedom of the press and his government will remain accessible to the media.
“There has never been any time I am called upon, anywhere, and not make myself available, not only to the media but to the people of this country because there is where I belong, there is where I feel comfortable. I would not run away from that,” he said.
This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme “Journalism under digital siege,” spotlights the multiple ways in which journalism is endangered by surveillance and digitally-mediated attacks on journalists, and the consequences of all this on public trust in digital communications.
The latest UNESCO World Trends Report Insights discussion paper “Threats that Silence: Trends in the Safety of Journalists,” highlights how surveillance and hacking are compromising journalism
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