David de Caires, the Guyanese, who died in Barbados last week where he had gone for medical treatment, was a great hero of Caribbean journalism.

It was not that Mr de Caires, 70, was a fine journalistic craftsman, who delivered stories of pristine structure or prose of great elegance. Although he was, on some issues that were close to his heart, capable of some of that.

David de Caires was a journalistic hero because of something more fundamental.

First, he understood that the foundation of journalism was the right of the individual to freedom of expression and to hold and exchange ideas and these freedoms, in turn, were the foundations of democracy. He understood, too, that the paraphernalia of journalism and a free press were merely superstructures, built upon these freedoms.

But, there was something more elemental to David de Caires' heroism. He understood these things and acted upon them in bleak circumstances when it was necessary and when doing something else would have been easy and safe.

Lead founder

David de Caires was chairman of the Guyana Publishers Incorporated and, more important, editor-in-chief of the Stabroek News newspaper, of which he was the lead founder in 1986 - 22 years ago. At the time the People's National Congress was still in office after more than two decades, and although the choking environment of the Forbes Burnham era was easing, press freedom was still at a premium. The government of Burnham's successor, Desmond Hoyte, continued to make it difficult for newspapers to publish. And given the earlier murder of Father Andrew Dark of the Catholic Standard, who had opposed the Burnham regime's strangulation of Guyanese society, it would not have been unreasonable to question why a middle-aged lawyer would want to enter the fray.

But that is precisely the environment in which David de Caires, with the support of local friends and Caribbean publishers, launched the Stabroek News, which helped to breathe oxygen into the Guyanese society.

Commitment to the truth

David de Caires was not without agenda or ideo-logy, but he brought to his journalism an utmost integrity and commitment to the truth and facts. And he was incorruptible. He caused governments and the puffed-up and pompous great discomfort. "We can't afford to be in anyone's pocket, or even their corner," he once wrote.

Indeed, the Stabroek News' campaign for openness and democracy played no small part in the eventual election to office of the People's Progressive Party, whose government, ironically, cut off advertising to the Stabroek News in 2006. It is important though, that President Bharrat Jagdeo acknowledged that David de Caires "helped to open the country to other views, some of which helped to restore freedom".

A man who embraced the Caribbean, David de Caires was as passionate about the arts and literature as he was about the free press.

Thanks in part to David de Caires, Martin Carter's "season of oppression, dark metal, and tears" is not anymore so prevalent in Guyana. Indeed, the entire Caribbean is better off that he lived.

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