VIENNA, Aug 17, 2012 – A well-known Guyanese newspaper columnist and human-rights activist was assaulted late Wednesday night after speaking at a public vigil near the country’s parliament building in Georgetown, the latest incident in what he believes to be a government-sponsored campaign to silence him.

Freddie Kissoon, who writes for the independent Kaieteur News, told the International Press Institute (IPI) that an unknown man “showered him with blows” as the journalist attempted to enter his vehicle. After fellow activists responded to Kissoon’s cries for help, the man fled in a black SUV that Kissoon said had been seen “circling” the vigil.

Wednesday’s event was held in support of residents protesting against an increase in electricity rates in Linden, Guyana’s second-largest city, where three civilians were killed last month by government security forces. Kissoon has written critically of the official response to the incident, authoring a recent piece in which he echoed suggestions that the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was conspiring to exacerbate the country’s racial divisions. (Race is a constant theme in Guyanese politics, brought sharply back into focus by tension between the Indo-Guyanese supported PPP and the largely Afro-Guyanese population of Linden.)

Kissoon, who abruptly lost his position as lecturer at the state-run University of Guyana earlier this year, told IPI he believed the mastermind of Wednesday’s attack was “someone high up in the government obsessed with his [Kissoon's] politics”. In a column published just last Sunday, the journalist called himself “the second most molested victim of state oppression in post-independent Guyana” and wondered aloud whether an attempt on his life was imminent. He also wrote that his wife had recently been “hounded” out of her job at a government investment agency and that his daughter had been the victim of malicious blog postings.

Bert Wilkinson, executive member of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) added that the threat of a government plot against Kissoon was “very real”. Wilkinson pointed to allegations that a disturbing 2010 incident in which a bucket of human waste was thrown in Kissoon’s face had been hatched inside the Guyanese president’s office.

The government fiercely denied involvement in that attack, noting in a statement that despite what it viewed as “serious misrepresentations” and “distortions” in Kissoon’s columns, it “respect[ed] the rights of journalists to freely express their views and [stood] firm in defence of that right”, according to Stabroek News.

Howver, Kissoon is also the defendant in an ongoing libel suit brought by former Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo, who claimed Kissoon had insinuated that he and the PPP government were racist in one of his columns. Wilkinson told IPI that evidence released during the trial has further vexed the PPP, which lost its working parliamentary majority in last November’s elections. The case will resume in court on September 7; Kissoon says he is confident in the strength of his evidence.

IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills said: “We are very concerned about this week’s attack on Freddie Kissoon and we urge the Guyanese government to open an immediate investigation and to bring those responsible to justice. Furthermore, officials must ensure that what appears to be a campaign of harassment against Mr. Kissoon and his family is stopped. The right to engage in critical journalism is vital to any democracy and must be respected.”

Mills added that IPI was also urging the loosening of restrictions on private media in the country, calling the government’s radio and television monopoly in the Linden area “a significant obstacle to the free flow of information”.

For his part, Kissoon, who on Thursday was recovering from the attack, was determined to continue both his writing and his activism. While he contended that the government had overestimated the level of his influence, he nevertheless added pointedly: “I will continue to do what I’m doing … until I die.”