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- Guyana’s leading independent newspaper, the Stabroek News closed with its final edition on Sunday, March 15, 2026 after nearly 40 years. It was founded in 1986 by the attorney-at-law David de Caires and a group of friends with the critical assistance of the region’s media titan, Ken Gordon, who also helped establish other famous newspapers ranging from the Trinidad Express and Barbados Nation to the Jamaica Observer and the St Lucia Voice.
By Indranie Deolall
Night would be fading when I heard the front gate squeak open and then the familiar thud followed by an increasingly urgent tapping. Our strained but soft-spoken ‘Paper Lady’ had scurried in, her shoes squelching with each step. She slipped the Guyana Chronicle, and the New Nation of the then ruling party of paramountcy through the half-opened peeling wooden jalousie and glanced around for spies, her eyes darting. Water glistened on the plastic hood and gaunt cheeks, as she whispered through the louvres, “You’all want the others? I manage to get a few.”
From deep underneath her raincoat and strategic layers of clothing, she carefully extracted an opaque-covered pack of precious papers. The Catholic Standard, done by the indefatigable Father Andrew Morrison on a manual typewriter, was copied and then run off on whatever sheets became available, so it sometimes came out in wild colours, given the desperate newsprint and foreign exchange shortage; the opposition Mirror of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and the Dayclean of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) that was the most sporadic of the lot, depending on whether the rampant thugs had intercepted the party’s young academics and destroyed their illicit cargo.
My father bought all the newspapers, sanctioned or not, even though times were hard, saving weekly and paying the “Paper Lady” each month-end with a little bonus at Christmas or when we could afford it. I read them and everything else I could find, learning new ideas and words, and thumbing through our worn dictionary.
Our “Paper Lady” was right to be wary. Jailed and beaten countless times for handing out copies of the “Dayclean” or putting up related WPA posters, the artist and activist Desmond Alli repeatedly told me of the house searches and detention, and of being tortured with others in the police station at Bartica back in 1979. The cops interrogated the campaigners separately and used a hot, blinding light device that left the men with marks and burnt skin. He refers to a taxi driver who was detained and beaten to death simply on suspicion of transporting the illegal publication.
Alli’s account appeared in 2021, within a column I wrote for this newspaper. On March 11 last, the Trinidadian-born media legend, Ken Gordon, recounted how the independent and privately-owned Stabroek News (SN) started in 1986. “Following an interview with president (Desmond) Hoyte of Guyana, which had been published in the Trinidad Express newspaper, David de Caires came to see me at the Express in Trinidad. At that time, the media was completely controlled in Guyana.”
In an excerpt from Gordon’s 1999 autobiography, “Getting it Write,” De Caires, a prominent attorney, related – “I asked him if he was planning to start a newspaper in Guyana. He said he was not, but if I was, he would do all he could to help. To my consternation, as I had not yet fully made up my mind but had gone essentially on an exploratory mission, Ken summoned his secretary and dictated the outline of a plan of action to start a newspaper in Guyana. I left his office in a daze, vaguely aware that I had embarked on a venture that would radically affect both my career as a lawyer and my life.”
Gordon resumed: “David and I shortly after visited president Hoyte, who confirmed that the government would have no objection to the operation of a newspaper. He also emphasised that the government could not afford to allocate foreign currency to import newsprint and other related items. I then sought and obtained a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States. But we had no press. This was solved by preparing weekly flats in Guyana and taken to Trinidad on a weekly basis by the charming Doreen de Caires (David’s wife and business partner). This was done for some nine months by which time a second-hand press was purchased, and printing was undertaken in Guyana.”
“There is much more that could be added about the role of the Stabroek News (SN) in Guyana, for I view its closure with the deepest regret,” Gordon, who just turned 96, admits. “But I restrict my comment to thanking (SN) for a highly commendable job in most difficult circumstances. I am pleased to have been associated with (SN).” De Caires, he reiterated in his book, was “a thoughtful, careful man with his words, and a devoted patriot.” SN worked its way through the enormous difficulties of a Guyanese economy starved for foreign exchange, with the De Caires making an outstanding team, Gordon stated in his publication, stressing “Guyana today enjoys a free and independent media because the De Caires family had the courage to walk away from the relative comfort and security they enjoyed to put it all at risk to make Guyana a better place.”
The De Caires’ impossible dream became a reality, but journalism is an exacting and exhausting profession. Both sacrificed their health, their prime years, and their energy in this cause, their son Brendan acknowledged in his February 13 moving announcement of the paper’s closure. “Shortly before our father’s death (in 2008), the newspaper endured a period when advertisements from state-owned companies (a significant source of revenue) were withheld – a rather crude attempt to muzzle the free press.” Brendan and his sister Isabelle are the principal shareholders. He revealed his mother suffered a stroke that deprived her of speech and left her bedridden last year.
“We have repeatedly sought (and been refused) a radio licence. Although we operated a TV subsidiary for a few decades, our main local competitors enjoyed significant privileges. The playing field was not level. The anticipated progression from newspaper to multi-media broadcaster has been impossible,” he said.
Remembering the anticipation and thrill when Stabroek News launched, and thinking how much I wanted to be writing for a fiercely independent publication rather than the State-owned Guyana Chronicle, which is forever tightly-controlled irrespective of the party in government, I never expected I would decades later. For a cherished though short time, I became a weekly columnist, thanks to modern technology and the generosity and patience of the dedicated editor-in-chief, Anand Persaud, a good man of integrity and courage, whose work ethic is unparalleled, and the kind support of staffers who also persevered with me.
Sixty of them are now without jobs as the respected newspaper ends today, entering voluntary liquidation with its final edition, a closure caused by a combination of factors including falling circulation as readers shift to digital and social media; declining advertising revenue; another shameful outstanding government debt of over $80 million; and what Persaud explained was a failed transition of a hybrid print-digital model.
Mainly, health issues post-COVID forced me to stop the column series at the end of 2021, since I felt I could no longer give of my best. Yet, over nearly 40 years, the Stabroek News did precisely that, with Persaud committing more than three decades of his life to ensuring the newspaper shone its light in dangerous and dark places, pursuing accountability and transparency, and being the voice of the poor and the powerless.
The Stabroek News’ service to Guyana is outstanding and unquestionable. It was first pivotal in the country’s long fight for the return of democracy and free and fair elections in 1992 that led to the People’s National Congress (PNC) headed by the reformist president Hoyte, losing and the PPP gaining power, inheriting a too powerful Executive Presidency and expanded Constitution.
Advocating for government accountability and press freedom, the newspaper would endure the public wrath of at least three different administrations and Presidents from the two main political parties – Bharrat Jagdeo in 2006-2007, David Granger in 2019 and Irfaan Ali in 2025-2026, when state advertisements were either deliberately withheld or massive debts left unpaid. In 2020, SN reported extensively on the five-month post-election impasse following a surprise No-Confidence Motion that led to the president Granger-headed APNU-AFC coalition falling and seeking to illegally cling to power, perhaps fearing what the return of their old rival the PPP would mean.
I was brought to tears that Black Friday, hearing Persaud repeat that “it is better to end in dignity and to leave on your feet rather than live on your knees beholden to anybody,” even as he stressed that it is for others to carry on the fight and hold the torch. However, I am far from optimistic given the many ominous signs, including the PPP Government’s failure, even now, to honour its debt to the paper, and its hostile conduct against media houses that dare criticise it.
Guyanese are a resilient and resourceful people, so hopefully, the virtual town square that featured the bloggers and letter writers will continue somewhere safe. More importantly, we must be able to protect and access the vast and invaluable repository of back issues that were digitised over the last two decades, and see the completion of the rest that holds our records and history. Perhaps we can work out a mechanism for regular subscription to access online.
Like many SN readers, I weep for the countless debts of gratitude, what we will all lose and what could have been in this the supposed world’s fastest growing economy with its billions of barrels of oil and natural riches, in which a vibrant, fair and unfettered media especially one as young and fragile as Guyana’s, will be among the first to fall to the resource curse.
Thank you, Stabroek News.
*** ID recently visited Guyana for the first time in 11 years. Her family no longer buys any newspapers, and she couldn’t find any for sale. Martin Carter’s poem, “This is the dark time, my love…” keeps replaying in her head.
Related Links:
- https://www.facebook.com/reel/890224790682115
- https://www.facebook.com/reel/913435511506084
- https://www.stabroeknews.com/…/opinion/editorial/the-end/
- https://www.stabroeknews.com/…/support-other-outlets…/
- https://www.stabroeknews.com/…/goodbye-not-au-revoir/
