Second commission media monitoring report out
THE second media monitoring report of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), made available to the media this week, said it is becoming increasingly evident that "Guyanese citizens should consult several different sources to get a complete picture of the news (elections related)".
"Our early observations have also revealed various examples of mistakes that may be simple oversights or due to the pressures of meeting daily deadlines and trying to present the news in a timely manner," the report added.
The Media Monitoring Unit GECOM set up late last year presented in its first report last month `snapshot' findings on elections related media coverage.
This second report again monitored the two major daily newspapers, the radio station and five television stations in Georgetown for its electoral media reports for the period January 14 to January 27.
This second report, however, said other observations might be cause for more serious concern which includes a continuing "lack of balance".
Most disturbing, the monitoring unit said, may be several instances when the objectivity of news programme on state media, especially GTV Channel 11, appears compromised by the insertion of opinion and commentary into what is purported to be news.
"GTV is hardly alone, however, in exhibiting behaviour that should be examined in light of the responsibilities expressed in the Media Code of Conduct," the report added.
The report said that during this second monitoring period, all of the media monitored, with two exceptions, devoted a smaller percentage of their election-related news to the government and a larger percentage to news the monitoring unit assigned to its `general category'.
It asserted that this seems to be a reflection of the increased coverage devoted to the activities in the High Court relating to the Elections Petition decisions.
According to the report, the two exceptions were the Voice of Guyana and GTV, Channel 11 Six O'Clock News. These media outlets also covered the High Court decisions, yet devoted a smaller percentage of time to the various political parties, except for Voice of Guyana, which actually slightly increased the percentage of time devoted to the governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the monitoring unit said.
The unit in its latest report said that after reviewing over six weeks of news in the two main newspapers, it is clearer that the Guyana Chronicle and the Stabroek News present different views of current events to their respective readers.
The Chronicle devoted relatively less coverage to the government than during the first two weeks of the monitoring (the period for the first report). According to the second report, more space was devoted in the Chronicle for the period monitored to general news relating to the elections.
In the Guyana Chronicle, the unit said the PNC/REFORM received 8.06 per cent of the space, the PPP/C received 3.94 per cent of the coverage, GECOM got 4.90 per cent followed by AFG (Alliance For Guyana) with 2.42 per cent and Justice For All Party (JFAP) with 0.04 per cent.
The report concluded that the tone of the coverage by the Chronicle "showed a somewhat more even distribution of positive and negative coverage of each of the two main parties."
The unit said Stabroek News continued to offer some coverage to a wider range of parties and deducted that for the newspaper, as with the Chronicle, government related news decreased as a percentage of total relevant news and general news expanded.
But the relative amount of space devoted to other parties also increased from the previous monitoring period, it found.
There was both positive and negative coverage of the two main political parties but more positive than negative in both cases, it said.
The unit said the Catholic Standard devoted 50.9 per cent of election related news to stories about the government, 30.35 per cent to general news, 10.72 per cent to PNC/REFORM, only 0.14 per cent to PPP/C and 7.84 per cent to GECOM. The unit said most of the references to the government and the PNC/R were negative, most of the news relating to GECOM was positive and the little coverage given to PPP/C portrayed them in a positive light.
With regards the monitoring of the three main daily newscasts on Voice of Guyana (VOG), the unit said the government continued to get the bulk of the coverage (85.05 per cent). It found that unlike most other media outlets during this period, this represented a slight increase in the percentage of news devoted to the government.
With respect to coverage of the various political parties, the PPP/C continued to lead with 3.01 per cent of the relevant coverage followed by PNC/REFORM with roughly half as much coverage as they had received during the unit's last monitoring period (.72 per cent compared with a previous total of 1.42 per cent).
The unit said other parties were virtually ignored in the VOG news broadcasts.
In this monitoring period, the report focussed again on the news programming on the main television stations in the Georgetown area and found:
** That the amount of time devoted to the various subjects of its monitoring effort did not change significantly on GTV Channel 11 (Six O'Clock News) since the unit's last report.
** Prime News also exhibited a relative decrease in government coverage (again more positive than negative) coupled with a significant increase of news of the general category. They also had less coverage during this period about GECOM, the unit said.
It found that Prime News increased its coverage of the PNC/R to 12.3 per cent and it was consistently positive, while the PPP/C coverage decreased to three per cent which was also consistently positive.
** News on Capitol News decreased from the previous period and coverage of general category election-related news increased. During this period Channel 7 also afforded much more coverage (13.24 per cent) to PNC/R while the PPP/C got 6.45 per cent coverage. The unit said the PNC/R received mostly positive coverage and the PPP/C received more negative than positive coverage.
** MTV Channel 65 News (MTV news update) devoted a smaller percentage of coverage to government news and more to the general category in the two weeks ending January 27 compared with the previous monitoring time period.
News about GECOM grew from eight per cent in the last report to 16.97 per cent in this report. The PPP/C's relative coverage grew to 10.95 per cent and PNC/R news shrunk to 1.55 per cent. Again coverage of government was overwhelmingly positive, while coverage of GECOM was mostly negative during this period when it had been mostly positive in the previous period.
** VCT Evening News decreased (in terms of percentage) the time devoted to the coverage of government news while the relative time devoted to general news increased during this period. GECOM coverage increased to 14 per cent, PNC/R to 10 per cent and the PPP/C coverage virtually disappeared.
The unit said it has been recording the main TV talk shows for several weeks and has commenced reviewing and assessing their content.
According to the unit, this analysis is not yet complete, but said its next report will include a detailed discussion of its observations.
The next report is expected by mid-February. (MARK RAMOTAR)
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