– Teixeira- on panel discussion to mark World Press Freedom Day

PRESIDENTIAL Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira, said that the media in Guyana has a responsibility to be balanced, and when it comes to development, they must make true decisions based on the nationalist point of view.Speaking on a panel discussion in observance of World Press Freedom Day on the National Communications Network (NCN) on Sunday , she noted that the media’s role is to be the fourth-estate, to observe, watch, write

about, inform, analyse, and criticise all aspects of development that are taking place in the country.
The other members of the panel were: Adam Harris, Editor -in-Chief of Kaieteur News; and Edward Layne, Senior Editor at NCN; the moderator was Dario McAlmon.
Teixeira said that the media must not be seen only as a critic of government, but also as a critic of civil society; and as such much hold themselves to a higher standard of not being a proponent of any particular view, since in essence they are historians; and as such, their standards require much greater responsibility on the issue of whether they cover a story and how well they cover it.
“Unfortunately, a lot of what comes out now is – ‘are you for the government or are you against the government?’ -and who lose in the end are the people, in terms of they not being given the full scope of the information that is available,” Teixeira noted.
She pointed out that the government also loses, as well as the country, as the media’s anti-development reporting not only hurts the image of the press, but also the image of the country, as it hinders the country’s ability to attract investors.
She noted that other media houses and owners recognise this in other countries, and as such, if one were to examine some of the newspapers in the Region, one would realise that all the crime issues are way down in the newspapers, because the media understand that their countries’ economy depends on tourism.
“These are decisions that editors, that the owners of the media make…that kind of balance is not here, and we have to find a balance,” Teixeira urged.
“We have come out of a period of lack of democracy, where the press (Mirror and Catholic Standard in those days and then later Stabroek News) had to scrounge for paper… We have come into a period where the press is open and basically unregulated,” she said, noting that there must be balance to ensure this freedom is not abused.
“That is not to say that you are asking them to sweep things under the carpet, but you are asking them that when you (use) raging headlines, you are hurting the country.
“You may have enough influence to change the government eventually, and that might be the intention, but the impact on the country and the impact on development cannot be replaced,” she noted.
She said that this is one of the issues that the media owners, not the journalist, have to deal with, since while there can be professional ethics in terms of the journalists, it is the owners and editors that set the tone and policy for the media houses.
World Press Freedom Day was observed on May 3, 2014.

(GINA)