Aside from its watchdog role, the local media have had to help people understand their rights under the constitution and the functions of the different arms of government so they are better equipped to hold public office holders accountable, says Guyana Press Association (GPA) President Nazima Raghubir.
“The media has been called on for many years to do a lot. We can’t do it all to hold government and everyone accountable. We know that politics is holding up this awareness programme. More civil society organisations need to do more work to ensure that citizens are well informed, understand their role and speak up during the good and bad times,” she told Stabroek News in a recent interview.
An awareness programme that does not involve politicians is needed, she said noting that there are organisations and institutions geared to help citizens in understanding their rights but because of blind loyalty to political parties they stay away.
“Everyone comes to the media for everything. They can’t get water, the roads are flooded, the passport office got a line or somebody at the hospital died because of something that has happened there.”
To complement the governance awareness programme, she said that an extensive media literacy campaign is needed for people to understand how freedom of the press works and how the media should operate. “There are different threats to what we do and sometimes it comes from ignorance. People need to distinguish what they see in the media and what they see on social media platforms and other outlets.”
While Guyana is a fairly free country, she said, media houses do not have access to certain types of information and certain political offices. Public officers do not speak to the media unless they get permission from the political directorate.
The withholding of government advertisements to media houses, notably to the Stabroek News by a past PPP/C administration and the APNU/AFC coalition, Raghubir noted, is also used as a weapon to stifle press freedom and it can have a crippling effect on their economic viability.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she said, government agencies directed advertising revenue to media and social media platforms they were comfortable with. Now some media houses are reporting they, too, have not been getting government ads.
“We have been told by some who place the ads that they had been politically directed to which social media pages and news networks to place their ads. If government is truly interested in the free press and the press doing its work for the country, they should have no issues with which media houses taxpayers’ money is spent on ads,” she said.
“A public relations officer raised with me an issue of a media house submitting marketing plans to ministries to do favourable reporting for the government. This undermines our work and it goes against every ethic and principle we try to uphold in this profession. It is a challenge we face trying to ensure media houses understand their role that news and information is for public awareness, public consumption and decision-making.”
Political directives
She said, some media houses work with political directives that undermine their freedom to operate as the press. “It is sad to see how the media has been undermined by journalists-turned- politicians. They have gone against all of what journalism stands for. Some media houses cover stories of government with a positive political slant and the opposition is not covered unless it is a negative story.”
Noting that the country has been divided along ethnic and political lines for the longest while and similarly the media, she said, “We need to do some serious introspection on how to apply fairness and balance in our work. It is the best thing we can do for our democracy.”
The 2020 elections fiasco further brought to the fore the division that existed, she said, “Because some sections of the media do not understand their role, they have given this government an excuse to take control of everything without leaving space for civil society, or, even the political opposition. Some civil society organisations are not seen as impartial or fair either.”
Among the many challenges the media face, is the way social media and the internet have changed the way media houses gather and disseminate information. On the positive side, a lot of media houses have adapted to social media, sharing live interviews. Before social media, newspapers also broke news stories on their websites with in depth reporting following in the next day’s newspapers.
On the other hand, a lot of social media commentators, including politicians, share information, misinformation and disinformation in the social media space without verification with detrimental results, leaving the media to tidy up the mess they create. “In journalism, we have to fact-check and sanitise the information before it goes out.”
A recent example, she said, is social media outfit Guyana Daily News publishing a story without verification that the officer, who was on open arrest in the killing of Quindon Bacchus, had secured bail. This misreporting contributed to protests that became violent.
Another challenge, Raghubir cited is political parties and other agencies issuing unclear statements for publication and the media being unable to get clarity.
The Covid-19 pandemic, she said, created another barrier between the media and public office holders who already made up excuses not to speak with the media. With the pandemic, the situation got even worse.
Under the APNU+AFC coalition government, President David Granger did not hold press conferences but post Cabinet press briefings were held so there was an interface with the government, she said. It was also difficult to get certain ministers.
In the current administration, President Irfaan Ali holds infrequent press conferences and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who previously met with the media every week as Leader of the Opposition, only holds press conferences once in a while but no post Cabinet press briefings have been held since this government took office in 2020, Raghubir said.
“There have been so many excuses.” Both the President and Vice President could not say when post Cabinet briefings would be held.
Post-Cabinet press briefings are important, she said, because they shed light on government’s operations, decisions taken and issues discussed at Cabinet. “Some ministers don’t answer their phones and some ministers don’t speak to some media houses. It is not about us. It is about informing the public.”
Legislation
In a conversation with Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Raghubir said, she told him on the sidelines of a meeting that the GPA has some recommendations for amendments to the cybercrime legislation because it criminalises some of what the media do.
“Taping or recording a conversation via the phone even though permission is given and receiving information from sources in our emails, the legislation criminalises that entire process. It needs to be better worded.”
In the incident involving Leroy Smith and the character, Mudwata, who it is alleged is Keron Bruce, a photographer, the police seized Bruce’s equipment and recording devices. Even though Bruce is not a known member of the media, she said, “Think how the law could be used, misused or misinterpreted and what this means for people operating in that space.”
In the recent incident with Stabroek News, in which police were sent to obtain information about allegedly stolen documents, she said, the cybercrime law was not used but she questioned what could have happened if those documents were obtained by email.
Similarly, she said, the Access to Information Act needs to be amended because it does not give the public a lot of latitude to get information on contracts, government business and different documentation.
“The media and the rest of civil society need to reexamine the act and look at ways it can be more accommodating so that everyone can access information. We are not for a one-man or a one-woman commission. It should be made up of at least three persons, a council, and requests should go to that council. The commissioner should not be a political appointee.”
She noted the act was drafted by the Attorney General’s Chambers when then Attorney General Charles Ramson held the office. After he left office, he was appointed Commissioner of Information. “That just doesn’t sit right. We had an issue with his office being at the Office of the President. He then moved it to his property in East Street. I don’t know if people have been making requests recently but I know that when Transparency Institute Guyana Inc made a request, some years ago, he said, ‘No money, No Love.’
On government’s proposal to establish a journalism academy, Raghubir said she was informed that government proposes to offer some online courses with Coursera Inc. “We do not have an issue with the government offering training. We feel government should give serious thought to provide funding to the Centre for Communication Studies, University of Guyana to boost their communication/journalism programme that they already have and also to add to its list of programmes.”
In response to Minister Kwame McCoy’s concern about the entry requirement to the university, Raghubir said, UG has a matriculation programme to help with that.
The GPA has also discussed how it can work with UG to train media personnel in the technical and engineering fields, she said. “This is a core group of people who add to the faces of the people who ask the questions. Without this technical assistance we would be left out in the cold. In the past the centre and media houses collaborated on internships. A lot of professionals in other fields did internships at Prime News and other media houses. It provided them with a useful insight as to how the media operate.”
Partnership
“We are open to partnerships but each has to be examined to ensure media workers as defined are the ones who benefit and not the lackeys that come along from time to time under different political parties. Under the Granger administration, the GPA received a donation of $1 million for training with no strings attached. No one directed what we did with the money”, she said.
One recommendation, the GPA made to Presidents Granger and Ali was to put in place a mechanism to enable media workers access, for familiarization purposes, to areas of the country, such as Region One communities that border Venezuela and Suriname, the media usually cover. “We have no idea what the people and the terrain are like. It is not only because of the sensitivity of the areas but because the Guyana Defence Force would have been a good guide for the media. This is why we appealed to both commanders-in-chief but this has not happened.”
Raghubir said, “Even though people have access to social media and send videos, nothing beats going on the ground and understanding the dynamics, so when you file your report, you know what is there. Those are the partnerships we are open to. More state-owned entities and other organisations could be open to accommodating the media house in familiarization tours. It is about stories coming out, the public being educated as we are also being educated.”
Continuous training for the state and private media, over the years and ensuring it does not come at a cost to journalist, other media workers or the media house, is a major plus for the GPA, she said. “We have launched a series of guidelines, more recently on reporting on suicide and done training in trauma resilience. A special session was held for female reporters to speak about their challenges in the industry.
“Media workers here don’t necessarily have beats. They cover everything from politics, natural disasters, entertainment and almost everything in any given day. With the Covid-19 pandemic each reporter would have covered some aspects of how it affected sport, health, education and the 2020 elections”, she noted.
