THE completed budget, which outlines the funding needed for the resuscitation of the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU), will be sent to Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon today.

This was confirmed by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally, in an invited comment yesterday.
Meanwhile, Dr. Luncheon, who is also head of GECOM, as it relates to the Commission being a budget agency, acknowledged that there was a consensus regarding the resuscitation of the MMU.
According to him, the budget for the unit’s operations, over an approximate timeframe of five months, is not expected to exceed a cost of $20M.
“What I gathered is that the budget would not exceed US$100,000 for the five months of operations,” he told the Guyana Chronicle, yesterday.
The Media Monitoring Unit was established in 2006 and the GECOM Chair underscored an earlier commitment made by Dr. Luncheon to resuscitate the Unit – a commitment that was endorsed by the three political parties based on the merits of the Act.
“GECOM has already gone a far way in resuscitating the MMU,” the GECOM Chair assured in a prior comment.
Until the MMU is fully operational, the GECOM Chairman noted that any concerns from political parties regarding breaches can be communicated to the Commission for consequent actions to be taken.
“There will be some level of monitoring until the MMU comes on stream,” he said.
The Media Monitoring Unit’s objectives include monitoring of the media and reporting on breaches of the principles enshrined in the Media Code of Conduct and norms associated with international best practices in journalism. It also encourages equity, balance and fairness in news reporting. The MMU promotes the raising of professional standards in the media with regard to reporting on political, electoral, governance, and general social issues. (Vanessa Narine)