—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.
its time for the accused to sue for wrongful allegations , then this practice will stop.
i now see why the govt acts against those that print misinformation, and i will agree with them.
This is a very good initiative by the gpa it is about time they do somthing about some of the tacky reporting by some of the news media it is much welcomed at this time.
Good move by GPA , MCC must be independent of govt and media people and must be racially balanced right now people are divided about the media the MCC might be able to bridge that divide
The Guyana Press Association has finally took a good look in the Mirror,
and has decided that it did not like what it was seeing, now we are getting some where.
All TALK and no ACTION makes for Jack being a very uneducated boy!
I see that somebody finally figure out one aspect of good governance in relationship to the media and the Executive branch…Bravo…Bravo.
The Jagdeo administration, mind you the executive branch of government , in my humble opinion Mr Moderator, acted without appropiate sanctions from any independent source such as this proposed MCC panel ,in both the Sharma ch6 T.V. and the Moseley incidents.
Remember, in a functioning democracy the executive swears to “faithfully execute the laws…..not sanction or make laws”. Therefore this proposed MCC panel will become the sanctioning body that grants the Executive the power to punish; execute etc….. Bravo! Guyana we now have the legal conduit for democracy, good goverance and the media, so big up to the Guyana Press Association for this bold suggestion.
Cochore
I don’t know if I’m reading you correctly, but my understanding of the establishment and functioning of the MCC will be the sole ambit of the Media practictioner and media owners.
I don’t see the Executive, in this case the President of Guyana, having any scope whatsoever to punish, execute….
I think that the idea is an excellent one and that the University of Guyana should be involved in the setting-up process.
And not to be a spoilsport, I see the greatest challenge as finding an impartial and independent panel with the relevant knowledge of our media landscape.
It is such a Complaints Commission/Committee that will deal with the current spat between Kaieteur News and the Health Minister.
Ensuing complaints will be a two-way street, between Government and media houses/operatives as well as laterally, among the media fraternity.
Good luck guys. I hope this Complaints Commission really gets off the ground and does not function like a toothless bull dog.
First of all, it shouldn’t be so hard to find somewhere to complain about the media, first of all. It is not just the media who are disrespectful, rude, and predjustice but also many talk show hosts who waste no time, bad mouthing our President and candidates who are campaigning to be President.The Media is the chief culprit. The media is supposed to be unbiased and the only one I have found to be even close is Glen Beck. What happened to the respect we are supposed to give the President of the United States, whether we agree with all he is deciding or not? We have no right to bad mouth people and be so rude that I don’t know why he would even WANT to be President. It is one thing to disagree with an action, but to slander their character and mock and ridicule them is just not even common decency. As for the talk show hosts…..I don’t know who they think they are!! They are vicious and just wait for a chance to prey on people. For David Letterman to mock and made vicious comments because John McCain cared enough about America to rush back to Washington is the most rude and vicious thing I have heard lately. No matter what he thinks, he does not know McCains motives for returning and for him to comment like that is definitely NOT funny so what was David Lettermans’intention for making fun. There should be a LIMIT to what the media and talk show hosts can say!! It is one thing to have FREEDOM to speak and another to SLANDER PEOPLE ! As far as the media goes, they are entitled (I guess) to be as LIBERAL as they want, but they have no right to make up stories and speak slanderous stuff when they do not even have all the facts. You would think they would at least TRY to be UNBIASED. I am giving up watching any of the news xcept maybe Glen Beck, because all it does is make me so angry that America can be so rude, just because a few people have morals, read the Bible, and treat people decent. I guess that just sets them up to be shot at.
Great observation Malaika06, so you’re paying attention huh….I like that, but the sarcasm lies in the second paragraph, because if I say it differently it would not be posted. SN would view my comments as attacking or criticizing Jagdeo personally.
However, this Executive is acting like a dictatorship when they mete out punishment on their own behalf, without prior sanctions from Complaints Commissions/Committee etc., like the judge, jury and executioner rolled up in one.
Here, the Guyana Press Association is doing the job for the Executive by implementing this panel. And by the way, they also need another mechanism for appeals if we’re talking real democracy.