The Guyana Press Association (GPA) yesterday said it will oppose every effort to bring the media under control through the touted draft Professional Services Bill which the Caricom Secretariat has announced may come into effect in another three years and will regulate professionals, including journalists.
Should the bill become a reality, the GPA said, it will empower governments to decide which journalists ought to be granted the right to practice and punish those who seek to expose the truth or are critical of government policies.
The GPA in a release yesterday said while it recognises the need for greater regulation in the local media it staunchly believes that self- regulation is the way to go.
Efforts are already underway in this regard and it is the intention of the new executive of the GPA to see this through in order to bring to the Guyanese public a media corps better equipped to defend their interests and fulfil the mandate of the people’s guardian of democracy.
The GPA pointed out that while the draft legislation being circulated does not include a final list of professionals, Deputy Programme Manager for Services at the Caricom Secretariat Timothy Odle recently announced at a workshop on the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) that the registering and licensing of journalists would commence within three years.
The draft bill set out that the government will appoint a council for each profession which would be tasked with the licensing and regulation of the said profession. Additionally, the councils will fall under the ambit of the subject ministers who will have the power to direct them as they see fit “in the public interest because of exceptional circumstances.”
The GPA said this was just another attempt by the authorities to muzzle the media across the region. “We believe it is a retrograde step towards the tumultuous politics of Latin America instead of progression in our fledgling democracies,” the GPA said yesterday in the statement. It pointed out that unlike other professions, journalism is “inextricably linked to the constitutionally enshrined right of freedom of expression and in some jurisdictions freedom of the media.”
The association echoed the sentiments of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers which had stated that there will be no negotiation on this matter and urged the secretariat to have the media struck off the list of professions to be licensed in the bill.
