The Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) has written to the government on the resuscitation of the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU), which the administration disbanded last year to the surprise of many including the people at the commission.
Speaking to Stabroek News briefly yesterday, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Vishnu Persaud said the letter have indicated that given that they were entering “elections mode” and the political parties were increasing their campaigning, it may be “appropriate” to re-launch the MMU at this time.
After information surfaced that the unit would be disbanded, GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally had written to the government in May last year pleading for the continuation of the unit, which he said had contributed immeasurably to the peaceful conduct of the 2006 national polls.
“…Please accept that we have invested too much in this unit to allow it to collapse,” he wrote. “I am convinced that the function of the MMU, to a large extent is what allowed us to have a peaceful election in 2006. Even now the MMU keeps the media practitioners on the proverbial straight and narrow path….”
However, the body’s operation was wound up at the end of July and Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon advised the United Nations Development Programme to halt funding to the unit, which it had financed as part of its democratic governance projects. No official explanation was given for the decision to either GECOM or the UNDP, a source told Stabroek News at the time.
Meanwhile, in a release yesterday, GECOM stated that Surujbally on Wednesday met Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) Bishop Juan Edghill to consider areas in which the two organisations could work together towards the maintenance of an electoral environment free from violence. “During the discussions at the meeting, specific focus was placed by Dr Surujbally and Bishop Edghill on activities associated with the upcoming elections which could lead to racial/ethnic strife; eg political campaigning and media reportage,” the release stated.
Further, Edghill informed Surujbally that the ERC was in the process of establishing the organisational capacity to monitor political campaigns and rallies across Guyana with a view to preventing the utterance of racial/ethnic innuendos which could generate racial/ethnic problems, and with the potential to cause violent confrontations, it continued.
According to the release, the GECOM chairman pointed out that they had already initiated steps towards resuscitating the MMU and also updated Edghill on the status of preparations for the conduct of general and regional elections later this year. “With respect to the ERC’s intention to monitor political campaigns and rallies across Guyana, Dr Surujbally assured the ERC’s chairman that GECOM would remain open to providing any possible form of assistance which would contribute to the maintenance of a violence free environment during the pre, peri, and post-election periods,” the statement added
Among the objectives of the MMU were the monitoring of the media and reporting on breaches of the principles enshrined in the 2006 Media Code of Conduct and norms associated with international best practices in journalism; promoting the raising of professional standards in the media with regards to the reporting of political, electoral, governance and general social issues; encouraging equity, balance and fairness in news reporting; influencing media owners/operatives to abide by the principles enshrined in the Media Code of Conduct; and support GECOM’s Public Relations Department in information gathering and improving the organisation’s public image.
