As media operatives in Guyana prepare to celebrate another Press Freedom Day, calls are again being made for journalists to be more responsible and for the setting up of a self-regulatory body that can impose sanctions on reporters and entities that breach ethical standards.
For years there have been similar calls to little avail.
In some countries, there are press complaints commissions (PCCs), which are independent self-regulatory bodies that deal with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites).
Some PCCs also train journalists and editors, and work pro-actively behind the scenes to prevent harassment and media intrusion.
Asked to comment on the issue, Opposition Leader David Granger, himself a former journalist, agreed that there should be a body to monitor the press, but he believes such an agency must consist of media operatives themselves.
Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira
Granger said that the media constitute a professional branch and every profession has “some form of regulation”, pointing to the legal profession that is monitored by the Guyana Bar Association.
“I do believe that a professional body form is self-regulatory and the professional body regulates the behaviour and the ethics of persons within that profession. I don’t believe necessarily that there should be some imposition of government on a professional body.
“I trust the journalists to regulate themselves and such a body must function in order to prevent abuses.” Granger added that even when persons and entities sign on to such a body and agree to abide by the code of conduct, there must be mechanisms to ensure that these were being followed.
On the yet-to-be-operationalised Broadcast Authority, which will regulate radio and television stations and issue licences, Granger said such a body should not be the one to monitor media houses in terms of the news they disseminate.
Alliance For Change parliamentarian Cathy Hughes
“I feel that we must change that culture in which we wait for our behaviour to be regulated by the state. We are grown people we can regulate ourselves,” he told Guyana Times International.
Asked if there needs to be an independent person, preferably a retired member of the Appellate Court, to impose sanctions on defaulting media, Granger said: “It is for the professional body to impose sanctions on that person or the media house and those sanctions could be published so that the public will know. All of the media houses depend on the response of the public.
I think if people are brought to light and are disciplined by the professional body, they will suffer because the media depend on credibility, and if people feel that you are a dishonest reporter or a dishonest journalist, people will boycott your work and wouldn’t take you seriously and that would be the end of your profession.”
In favour
Veteran journalist and now Alliance For Change parliamentarian Cathy Hughes told this publication that she is in favour of a body that would regulate the media, as over the years there have been high levels of irresponsible reporting.
“Definitely the media must be regulated; it is a standard in any part of the world.”
She said, “The media has rights and they also have responsibilities and something like an authority, an independent organisation enforces those rights and responsibilities… it is very, very important.”
According to her, the time is ripe for Guyana to pay keen attention to organisations like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the mechanisms that have been put in place in such institutions.
She said whatever mechanisms are employed must be done through legal methods, so as to be binding. Hughes noted that the Media Monitoring Unit have a good structure, but it was not underpinned by the law. She said the organisation must have the requisite funding to function effectively, and all stakeholders must have a seat on the panel. “It can’t be done in a haphazard way,” she stressed.
Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira believes that the media needs to act responsibly at all times whether or not it is regulated by any given body.
She said that since 2001, it was agreed by all stakeholders that there needs to be a self-regulatory body of media operators, “that not everything could be done by law and by enforcement”. Though a number of initiatives were taken, Teixeira said the problem revolves around the fact that there needs to be a body comprising media operators, “particularly those with licences to abide by the law and the Constitution”.
She said she is not impressed with either the Press Association or the Guyana Media Proprietors Association. “There should be the rethinking and if they require a new body, then so be it.”
According to Teixeira, the body must be able to set standards, professional codes of conduct and behaviour for media personnel.
“I do really believe that that is necessary because the act in itself cannot, by itself, do all of that nor can the broadcasting authority when set up, do all of that. The media operators, whether it is in the television, written or radio have to have some code of conduct, practice to ensure that the media in Guyana, operate at a very high standard, so that the public is given balanced and accurate reporting.”
The trio also acknowledged that there has been an abuse of the media. Granger said, “A journalist is like a doctor, he is like a lawyer, a journalist has to report fairly, a journalist cannot report one side and ignore the other side. So when you are speaking about abuse, you are speaking about the removal of the journalistic ethics. Professionals must have social responsibility. You are responsible to society,” he asserted. “… and I think there must be some mechanism to ensure that the ethical values are adhered to by journalists.”
Similarly, Hughes said there has been irresponsible reporting over the years and cited reporting on last year’s general and regional elections as an example. She believes that media operatives need to be encouraged to act in a “responsible manner” and “it has to be enforced legally and that is what is missing right now”.
Teixeira concurred with Hughes on the issue of irresponsibility, noting that there has been “insensitivity”. She noted that some progress has been made, but there was need for more independence; “… the bottom line is fair, accurate, balanced reporting and to be sensitive to a multiethnic society— and not to blow it (situations) out of proportion”.
Although, they differed on the severity of sanctions, the trio concluded that media operatives who breach identified codes of conduct must be punished. Teixeira said if sanctions are to be implemented, “… what we need to do is get the media houses to agree, first of all, that they want this all-encompassing body, whether they want a self- regulating council, they would have to decide who they trust, I don’t care who they choose once they are going to be fair and stick to the Constitution of Guyana and laws. It has to be someone they have confidence in”.
