Tab­hiry Men Kau Ra

The founder and Ed­i­tor-in-Chief of Guyana's Stabroek news­pa­per, David de Caires, died in Bar­ba­dos yes­ter­day.

Stabroek News Ed­i­tor, Anand Per­saud said he was deeply an­guished by de Caires' pass­ing. Per­saud dis­closed that de Caires had spo­ken to him from Bar­ba­dos on Thurs­day and was bub­bling with ideas for the news­pa­per.

Per­saud said de Caires was al­ways guid­ed by the purest ob­jec­tives of the pro­fes­sion of jour­nal­ism, which he loved pas­sion­ate­ly, and would con­stant­ly ad­mon­ish jour­nal­ists about en­sur­ing ac­cu­ra­cy, bal­ance and fair­ness in their re­port­ing.

"He was a jour­nal­ist's Ed­i­tor-in-Chief in that he gave the op­ti­mum lee­way to any sto­ry that was be­ing done. There were no sa­cred cows, on­ly facts and in­for­ma­tion that the pub­lic had a right and need to know," Per­saud said.

He said de Caires worked tire­less­ly and was a car­ing and com­pas­sion­ate em­ploy­er. His pass­ing, he said, has left a void in the news­pa­per and has left the staff in deep grief.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view, for­mer promi­nent T&T and Caribbean pub­lish­er Ken Gor­don de­scribed de Caires' death as a great loss to those in the Caribbean who are con­cerned about in­tegri­ty and prin­ci­pled be­hav­iour. "David de Caires was an ex­tra­or­di­nary man by any stan­dard. He walked away from the com­fort of a very at­trac­tive le­gal prac­tice to pi­o­neer a free press in Guyana, fol­low­ing Mr Burn­ham's de­struc­tion of press free­dom," he said.

Gor­don said in re­build­ing a free press in Guyana de Caires has nev­er com­pro­mised is­sues of truth. "I am ho­n­oured that this man was my friend and I know that I speak for all peo­ple in the Caribbean me­dia when I say that he has left a lega­cy of which we can all be proud," he added.

Pres­i­dent of the Me­dia As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T Mar­lon Hop­kin­son said de Caires was con­sid­ered one of the best jour­nal­ists in the Caribbean. "He cham­pi­oned the cause of press free­dom in Guyana and the lat­est was with pres­i­dent Barath Jagdeo, when the gov­ern­ment de­cid­ed to pull ad­ver­tise­ments from the news­pa­per," he said.

Hop­kin­son de­scribed his death as a great loss to the fra­ter­ni­ty, but said his lega­cy would live on in every young re­porter that he had groomed.