THE Media Monitoring Unit (MMU), established by Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the 2006 general elections, will cease operations at month end. GECOM Public Relations Officer, Mr. Vishnu Persaud, who made the announcement yesterday, said its efficiency will have to be measured against the success of those polls but it made a significant contribution to the peaceful 2006 voting.
Its role was to monitor the output of media houses and address any breaches of their code of conduct, which it revised for the purposes of its work since then.
Persaud said if any breach was discovered it would have been drawn to the attention of the media house culpable, in the effort to promote responsible practices.
The MMU has a staff of six and he said they were employed on a contractual basis, with the understanding that the project could be terminated.
“There is a clause in their contracts that indicates this. There will be no cause for anyone going to the Labour Ministry,” Persaud said.
The MMU was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the funding covered its operations to the end of 2010 but additional funds were being budgeted for 2011, although not yet approved.