…Govt. ads must be allocated using President’s proposed yard stick-AFCLeader of the Alliance For Change, Raphael Trotman, yesterday stated that his party believes that if there is to be a free press in Guyana that is truly is the fourth estate, it should receive government advertisements without favour, ill will, or discrimination being used to decide who gets and how much.He recalled that when challenged by Stabroek News (SN) and Kaieteur News (KN) about the allocation of Government advertisements, “the President in particular said he was using the yardstick of proportionality based on distribution numbers.”Trotman said, “I am aware that the Guyana Times (GT) is given out freely in many hinterland locations…We have no issue with GT receiving advertisements but the President’s yardstick must apply…What is good for one must be good for all.”He stated that this latest confirmation of discriminatory practices should be viewed against the backdrop of comments made by the President at the Private Sector Commission dinner regarding KN.Jagdeo had accused the Private Sector operatives of aiding and abetting what he called the sensationalising of the news, since they advertise with this newspaper.According to the President, crime is blown out of proportion by Kaieteur News.“Let’s look at the image of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica in the world. Jamaica has millions of tourists and Jamaica’s crime rate is five times higher than us on a per capita basis.”“Here if you look at the Kaieteur News and some of the others, they create a story, when they don’t have a story they bring back the last week story on the front page.”Trotman noted to that “we all have to accept that there is a plain and calculated move afoot not only to assist GT in any way possible, but also to suffocate KN and SN and thus muzzle press freedom.”According to Trotman, (Bharrat) Jagdeo has been exposed once again and despite the evidence being presented he and his apologists and spinners will try to give some pseudo-academic argument to “justify their wickedness.”He posited that as he (Jagdeo) crusades around the world seeking Low Carbon money and accolades, the AFC has decided to keep adding these and other issues to the pot so that the Norwegians, and others see how money is spent, accounted for, (or not) and what discriminatory and low behaviour this so called democratic government indulges in against its own citizens and businesses.”Stabroek News in a six-month analysis of the government advertisements placed in the daily newspaper found that while the allocations of advertisements to KN plummeted and to a some extent advertisements allocated to SN the allocations to Guyana Times simultaneously escalated to the point that up to last month it was getting more than Kaieteur News despite the fact that its circulation is negligible.“SN has analysed the distribution of Government Information Agency (GINA) advertisements between April and September this year.In April when no GINA ads were going to Guyana Times, the apportioning of ads among the three daily newspapers, the Guyana Chronicle, SN and Kaieteur News was as follows: 37%,Wholesale Jerseys, 34% and 29.3% respectively.In May this year, when GT started receiving ads, having been in business since only June of 2008 and with dubious market penetration,cheap nfl jerseys, the distribution for the daily newspapers and the PPP-aligned weekly Mirror was as follows: GC 34.7%, SN 21.3%, KN 21.8%, GT 16.6% and the Mirror 5.4%.In June, the spread was as follows: GC 29.4%, SN 22.6%, KN 22.6%, GT 19.3% and the Mirror 5.9%.In July the figures were as follows: GC 30.7%, SN 25.7%, KN 21.7%, GT 15.4% and the Mirror 6.3%.The August figures were GC 34.1%, SN 24.1%,NFL Jerseys China, KN 17.2%, GT 15.9% and the Mirror 8.4%.For September, the figures were GC 30.86%, SN 24.24%,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, KN 18.07%,China Jerseys Free Shipping, GT 19.55% and the Mirror 7.26%.”