President Bharat Jagdeo of Guyana yesterday strenuously denied taking action to punish the Starbroek News newspaper.

The decision to withdraw government advertisements from Starbroek News was not a press freedom issue, President Jagdeo claimed, asserting that it was instead a decision based on economic value for his Government.

Meeting with Media

The Guyanese president met with representatives of the Caribbean media in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, during a break at the 18th Intersessional Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community.

The delegation comprised Harold Hoyte of One Caribbean Media, Newton James of the Gleaner Group in Jamaica, Dale Enoch of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers and Ricky Singh, an independent journalist.

The issue, according to President Jagdeo, was never related to press freedom from the government's perspective. It was the Stabroek News, he claimed, that erroneously raised the question of press freedom arising from the government's move.

Accordingly, he sought to assure the media representatives that he remained committed to maintaining freedom of the press and to defending the right of the Stabroek News, as well as the Kaieteur News, to publish and to disagree with his government.

The media representatives expres-sed concern to the president over the potential of this matter to escalate, and offered to work with his government to arrive at a method for the distribution of state advertising that would be based on empirical information. President Jagdeo extended an invitation to representatives of the Caribbean media to visit Guyana, as a follow-up to yesterday's discussions. The media delegation reported that the talks were frank and cordial and that a window of opportunity had opened for resolving the impasse.