The Guyana Press Associa-tion (GPA) will join several other organisations at a media encounter facilitated by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) to address sensitive issues related to press coverage for the upcoming general elections, President Gordon Moseley has said.
The ERC initiated the encounter to hold a discussion with media representatives on the Racial Hostility Act and the Representation of the People Act.
Moseley told Stabroek News on Monday that the GPA assisted the ERC in planning the programme in collaboration with the University of Guyana Centre for Commu-nication Studies, the Guyana Media Proprietors and Owners Association and the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB).
The ERC, in a press release, said the aim of the media encounter is to help the media and publishing houses to understand the law and how it impacts their work and to avoid prosecution. The event is scheduled for February 25 and 26.
But after the ERC press release was issued, at least two media operatives questioned whether the body is operating on a legal mandate and noted that the GPA should take cognisance of this. Asked about this issue on Monday, Moseley told Stabroek News the GPA ought not to be determining the legality and or illegality of any body. He noted that the ERC continues to receive press coverage from many media houses despite that specific concern.
The GPA President said the ERC is merely facilitating the event and he emphasised that the real issue is critical training for young media workers. He said a new batch of media workers with no experience in covering elections are currently working in the field and he added that the encounter would be useful for them. The programme was planned by the collaborating groups, he said, and he noted that the ERC was willing to embrace whatever programme the media agreed on.
The agenda includes discussions on the two pieces of legislation, encoded language, images that promote/diffuse ethnic tension, the ethnic dilemma in Guyana and the role of the media in reporting during an elections period, Moseley added.
Moseley said too that journalists will be briefed on the progress of the National Media Code of Conduct, which the GPA, the Media Owners Association and the University of Guyana Centre for Communications Studies are currently working on.
Communications expert Abraham Poole will also host a session looking at covering elections and sensitive racial issues and there will also be discussions with the head of the ERC’s Media Monitoring Unit.
