—Guyana Press Association

The time has come for the print and electronic media to consider the value of establishing a Media Complaints Committee (MCC), the Guyana Press Association (GPA) says.
The press body’s statement came in the wake of a public spat between Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy and the Kaieteur News regarding an article headlined ‘Health Minister admits to buying drugs illegally’ in last Sunday’s edition of the newspaper.

“At issue here is not whether the law was allegedly broken but whether, indeed, there was an outright and unambiguous admission by Dr. Ramsammy in the body of the story, rather than an editorialized interpretation of guilt,” the GPA said. The statement added that the GPA “strongly urges” that news reports are properly attributed to the sources of information, especially when the sources are not confidential documents or interviewees, who would have spoken with the agreement that they would be quoted.

“If, after a careful analysis, Kaieteur News agrees that it is wrong, the only logical expectation will be that of an unqualified apology and retraction,” the statement asserted.
In this light, the statement continued, “given the fact that the GPA’s purpose is to essentially develop the profession of journalism and promote media freedoms; we believe the time has come for the print and electronic media to consider the value of the establishment of a Media Com-plaints Committee (MCC).”

The statement noted that such an independent panel will, however, only gain widespread acceptance by members of the public if both the privately-owned and state-owned media agree to abide by the findings of the self-regulatory committee. “An MCC can, for instance, address concern/s by anyone about the use of names, videos and photographs of minors allegedly involved or convicted of crimes or the deceptive use of ‘Breaking News’ in advertisements,” the statement said.

It added that if the MCC panel ruled in favour of the complainant, the media house would be obliged to publish an apology or a retraction in a place equally prominent to that of the offending publication.

“At the end of the day, we must be fair, balanced, objective and responsible if we are to be recognised by the public as credible media workers and media houses,” the GPA said.