Jun 25, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – Kiskadee Watch is here. Daily. Online only. For now. Much more in the pipeline. Took some time, talent, and treasure from a few to get to here. From nowhere beside a vision to reach where it is today. More is needed. From Guyanese who yearn for the virtues of a free and balanced press. Free and fair has many more application than elections only. It is an obligation of quality journalism. Credible journalism is trusted journalism. All sides of an issue given a fair shake. No one muzzled. None attacked. A few have led the way to get KW going. Guyanese who extol the benefits of an independent media now have their part to play. Active participants. Part of the framework that reinforces the Fourth Estate to its best.

The people at Kaieteur News have come out publicly to support the arrival of KW. KN’s publisher doesn’t see a competitor. He sees a much-needed contributor in the ongoing fight for clean governance, trusted leadership, and holding both accountable. It’s what makes for a better society. It’s what adds another plank. However insignificant at the inception. Towards the road of democracy. The PPP Gov’t should welcome the presence of KW. After all, it is Excellency Ali who has insisted repeatedly that he and his government are fully in the corner of transparency and accountability. He just acquired an ally, an asset, in those two vital aspects of a country’s existence. It’s quality of life. For what’s transparency and accountability at its best, if not about a government that excels at both? What government can be so crass as to curse an addition to the Fourth Estate? Envision a problem for itself. What did government do? What’s to conceal? Similarly, which leader could be so nakedly, unashamedly, vulgar that he or she sees a free press presence as a threat to their standing, as a menace to society? Men with names and histories, such as Adolf Hitler and Uncle Joe Stalin, saw the worse in a free press. According to the new and improved PPP, Uncle Joe is gone. Uncle Sam is in; the new protective, comforting presence around. Ahem and amen, I say. Just be careful, I also say. Because some uncles have roving eyes. Their own interests come first.