– GECOM Chairman
THE independent Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) which ceased operations in July 2010, will be resuscitated soon and Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally said its value cannot be overstated.
The MMU was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and staffed by six persons, who were employed on a contractual basis, with the understanding that the project could cease, dependent of various factors.
Its role was to monitor the output of media houses and address any breaches of the Media Code of Conduct which it had revised.
According to Surujbally, the success of the 2006 elections process was largely due to the MMU, which ensured that “the media behaved itself.”
He explained that having a code of conduct, developed by the media houses themselves, a self-regulating type, worked better than having legislation imposed.
Surujbally added that the balance in coverage contributed to the elections being peaceful.