The ACM said it regards the statement as inflammatory and designed to endanger the lives of media practitioners and their families.
The ACM is an organization that represents media workers throughout the Caribbean.
It said it cannot allow Jagdeo’s inflammatory statement to go unchecked and as demanded an apology from the President and a retraction of the statement.
“We do not want to see a precedent set in the region of public officials, inciting hatred and violence against media houses and professionals, and being allowed to get away with it,” the ACM declared.
It also expressed deep concern over the decision by Jagdeo's administration to shut down the privately owned television station CNS TV Channel 6, which is aligned to the opposition.
The association said the “decision was made even as the case relating to the station broadcasting a defamatory commentary on its airwaves is engaging the local courts, and sees the initial directive to close the station at the height of the election season, as a direct attack on press freedom.”
“The subsequent announcement of the reversal of this directive, even at a political rally, is evidence of efforts to stifle free expression and to promulgate political interference in the work of the 4th estate,” the ACM said.
“The Association of Caribbean Media Workers is further calling for the complete withdrawal of the suspension against CNS TV Channel 6, which is now set to take effect in December, following the elections. The matter is in the hands of the court of law and a continuation of the directive to suspend the Channel could be seen as tantamount to muzzling.”
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