A DRAFT Code of Conduct for media practitioners has been circulated by the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) with the intent of inviting suggestions that would inform an improved final document.Measurable qualitative improvement in media reporting of social, political, electoral and governance issues during the 2015 election period topped the list of the six primary expected outcomes of the Unit’s operations.

GECOM will, today and tomorrow, host sessions to address the finalisation of the Code of Conduct, after which media houses would be invited to ratify and sign the document.

The draft code addresses stability in society during the election season; journalistic integrity and professionalism; fairness and balance; accuracy; full information and sins of omission; equitable coverage; the handling of opinion polls; and coverage on polling day.

Initially established in 2001, the MMU’s operations are expected to span a five-month period, and its activities, according to the project proposal seen exclusively by the Guyana Chronicle, would include the following: Daily monitoring of Guyana’s mainstream print and broadcast media for conformity to best practices associated with professional journalism; informing media practitioners in a timely manner of instances of breaches; the production of periodic reports on the Unit’s findings on media practitioners’ compliance; compiling archival information on local media performance for referencing purposes; and providing informational and other support to GECOM’s Public Relations Department.

These are in addition to other undertakings which are outlined in a work plan for the Unit.

“The MMU intends to serve as a bulwark against the purveying of any form of extremism in the media that threatens to derail the electoral processes,” the project proposal said.

The document underscored the objectives of the above stated activities of the Unit, once it has again become fully operational; those objectives include: promoting maintenance of the highest professional standards in the media during the upcoming general and regional elections; nurturing a responsible media environment that is supportive to the country’s democratic processes; facilitating the building of harmonious relationships between and among GECOM, the media, the Government, political parties, and civil society – a relationship that results in peaceful elections; and positively influencing the process of self-regulation by local media practitioners.

“(The goal of the MMU) is to contribute to the creation and maintenance of a media environment that is conducive to, and supportive of, the democratic processes in Guyana,” the project proposal said.

The Media Monitoring Unit was revitalised in 2006, and has since come to be “accepted as an objective and credible arbiter of media practices”, as the document highlighted.

At the last elections, more than two dozen stakeholders in the media corps had signed on to the MMU’s media Code of Conduct. (Vanessa Narine)