– GECOM Chair urges media to be responsible in coverage of elections
– Tells reporters: ‘Be aware of hearsay reports…do not report them unless you verify your stories’

By Navendra Seoraj
WITH General and Regional Elections a mere 36 days away, Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice Claudette Singh, has urged media workers to be responsible in their reporting, considering the political climate at this time.

“This is not cricket, during cricket season we are all together but I don’t know what takes place during elections…so in the interest of peace and stability, I urge you not to execute your functions at the expense of a peaceful society…resist the spin and contextualise your stories,” said Justice Singh, during her address to media workers on the first day of a media training exercise for elections coverage, at Palm Court, on Saturday.

The media, as the fourth estate, will be disseminating a vast amount of information, with messages specifically targeted at the political parties and their candidates, as well as other key stakeholders such as the electorate. And, Justice Singh believes that it is commendable when the landscape is saturated with election content, which provides knowledge to the citizenry and helps them in the electoral process. The content also encourages democracy and lends itself to advocacy for all of Guyana to participate in the democratic process.
This democratic process will only be achieved through responsible journalism and reporting, said the GECOM chairperson, adding that she has already listened to, watched and read some very “disconcerting stories.”

In her advice to media outlets and in response to such stories, she said: “sensational reporting is irresponsible journalism, particularly when election is just around the corner…such reporting evokes emotion, which will stimulate mistrust and violence, in an already-charged environment.”

Justice Singh urged media workers to be careful in their reporting on any Election Day incident and also encouraged members of the media to stay away from sensationalism and ensure that there is credible information.

“Be aware of hearsay reports…do not report them unless you verified your stories,” said the GECOM Chair. While the media sets out to be balanced and accurate in its reporting, she said, GECOM has many safeguards at every polling station to ensure that there are free, fair and transparent elections on March 2, 2020. Among GECOM’s safeguards are parties, elections’ agents, and local and international observers.

US Ambassador, Sarah Ann-Lynch, in her remarks, said: “we are here because a free and robust press is vital to democracy and good governance…to fulfill its highest civic focus the press must be both independent and unbiased.”

Without independence, a media outlet functions as a public relations mouth piece for whichever government, industry or power interest controls or exercises direct influence over the outlet, said the ambassador.

“Without the careful efforts of editors and journalists to dedicate their professional life to objectivity and unbiased reporting of facts, media outlets would function as purveyors of party propaganda and spin,” Ann-Lynch asserted, adding that, in both cases, whether lacking independence or neutrality, truth can be obscure.

In referring to the 2015 General and Regional elections, the ambassador said assessments of the media environment were conducted by some observers, who later reported that the media was biased in its election coverage.

The observers noted the diverse range of content and opinion across the media, but some of the assessments showed, only a small amount of the coverage was neutral and unbiased.

In encouraging the media to improve, the ambassador said: “this election is your opportunity to turn your page on that history and to more faithfully and convey unbiased information to the citizens of Guyana…in doing so, the press will display leadership role, as the purveyors of facts and balanced analysis on the elections.”

President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Nazima Raghubir, who spoke before the ambassador, also made a crucial point about the role of the media, especially during the elections season.

“More than ever, our jobs have placed us in a position to ramp up the level of our fact-checking, put a greater effort into striking balance, digging deeper to present stories with all the facets of fairness and to present information without prejudice.

“This has proven to be very tricky and sometimes dangerous, as journalism battles with social media to present news in real time, break stories in a competing business environment while all doing this with shrinking newsrooms,” said Raghubir.

She believes that credibility is the only value media workers have in their profession and if they are serious about what they do, they should work to ensure that “every box” is checked in order to have fair, balanced and informative stories.

With elections fast approaching, GPA encouraged media houses to do have some introspection and examine how the work of the media can impact on the greater good of Guyana, especially in this period and beyond.

In emphasising her point, she said: “we need to examine whether or not we are writing the real stories that ought to be told; are we covering the real issues tied to elections and the post-election period when the real work ought to begin; are our headlines and sound bites informing our audiences; and most importantly, are we really holding our politicians accountable.”

In that regard, the media training, which was organised by the GPA and the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham), is geared at ensuring that media understands its role in providing coverage of elections and also understanding its role in the dissemination of credible information in this period.

The programme, which ends today, will also ensure that media workers know their role in fostering an environment of social cohesion, during an often tense period.