Luncheon says MMU gets green light
ONE year after Government ordered the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) closed, Cabinet has approved its reconstitution in light of the upcoming general elections later this year. So says Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, who spoke at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at the Office of the President yesterday.
“The Media Monitoring Unit of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has gotten the green light and I should also advise that the gvernment’s resolve for external observers of the elections has led to invitations being extended to Caricom, the Commonwealth, the UN, the OAS, the EU, UNASUR, and the Carter Centre, the HPS said.
The MMU, which was working with GECOM, ceased operations in July last year. GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally had sent a letter to Dr. Luncheon asking for the MMU to be re-established, citing that much work had been put into it.
The MMU, which the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded, had six staff employed on a contractual basis. It was meant to monitor media houses’ output and address any breaches of the Media Code of Conduct.
This newspaper had reported then that the MMU had revised the Media Code of Conduct and based its operations on the new document. It was stated that the MMU would bring any breach of the Code of Conduct to the media house in an effort to promote responsible practices within the media corps as per the mandate of the MMU.
According to the GECOM Chairman, the success of the 2006 elections process was largely due to the success of the MMU, which ensured that “the media behaved itself.”
He explained that having a code of conduct developed by the media houses themselves worked better than having legislation imposed.
The objective of the MMU are, inter alia, to monitor media reports, reporting on breaches of the Code of Conduct, promoting the raising of professional standards in the media as it relates to reporting on political, electoral, governance and social issues, while encouraging equity, balance and fairness in news reporting.
The MMU is tasked also with influencing media operatives and owners to abide by the principles of the Code of Conduct. (Johann Earle)
