THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) may soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) for monitoring of the media during the upcoming elections period.

The cooperation could bolster GECOM’s Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) which, once operationalised, will scrutinise media platforms in print, television, radio and online for breaches in an established Media Code of Conduct (MCC). “Whilst we haven’t finalised, we’ve asked them to prepare a MOU for possible considerations by GECOM. That, in a sense, wasn’t unanimous, everybody wasn’t necessarily in agreement with that, but that is what we left that engagement saying that we would explore a possibility of a relationship from the standpoint of media monitoring, bearing in mind that there are certain provisions of the constitution and Representation of the Peoples Act which suggest that there should be collaboration between GECOM and the ERC on the question of media monitoring in relation to ethnic matters,” Commissioner Vincent Alexander said.

The media can significantly influence information and the atmosphere of the coming elections and therefore an MCC was established in 2001— and recently revised in 2015 — as the standard of media performance expected especially during the period.

Over the years, while the Commission’s MMU has observed and reported on coverage of the media during the elections season and their breaches of the MCC, the scrutiny had addressed only the traditional media of radio, print and television.

However, ahead of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, the MMU will be increasing its scrutiny of social media news platforms.

“Social media is trumping all other media. The new convergence of this new media technology is really trumping the traditional media, so it means therefore that we cannot say that we’re just going to monitor the traditional media platforms and leave social media out. Social media will be one of our top priorities if and when we have that unit established,” GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward had told the newspaper.

She also stated that the MMU will be taking into consideration the objectives of news agencies as she noted that all news agencies have their own mandates and may therefore be monitored for different aspects.

The Unit prepares and disseminates periodic reports of its findings on the local media’s performance and submits these to interested stakeholders such as GECOM and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Ward also disclosed that the Guyana Press Association (GPA) has indicated an interest in briefing media operatives about their conduct – hopefully in January 2020 – which could see a revision of the 2015 MCC to include certain media progressions. The Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) has also announced that it will be seeking international assistance to monitor the local airwaves for infractions during the elections season and will be approaching the ERC and the MMU when established.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Alexander also expressed that he was troubled by the number of vacancies for key positions which still existed at the Commission due to the failure of one commissioner to show up for the vetting process.

These vacancies exist for an Assistant Chief Election Officer (ACEO), a Civic and Voter Education Officer, a Research Officer and a Logistics Officer. Since October 15, 2019 Commissioner Alexander had been speaking to the media about the existing vacancies.
He said: “Once again, we were supposed to meet today. The absence and the non-availability of the Commissioner [meant] we couldn’t meet to do the interviews and that Commissioner has again indicated that she’s unavailable for next week and, in that context, we have suggested that we give the CEO the authority to recruit temporary staff to carry out the tasks that those vacant positions should be carried out so that GECOM can get on with its work.”

He stated that the vacancies are affecting the work of the Secretariat and the chairperson has stated that she would first like to hear the position of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) on the matter before she makes her decision. Even so, Opposition-nominated Commissioners continue to oppose the idea of temporary staff which Alexander said would result in the stymying of the work of GECOM. “The officers who are there will be put under tremendous pressure because these are key positions,” Alexander stressed.