Channel Nine talk show hosts blatantly breach media code - Nascimento Stabroek News February 5, 2001 Three talk shows on Channel 9 are flagrantly breaking the Media Code of Conduct and are misleading viewers with rumours masquerading as facts, says Kit Nascimento. The public relations consultant blasted the three shows: Straight Up; University on Nine; and At Home with Roger. "I have heard rumour reported as fact and admitted as rumour, the invention of rumour to justify allegations of wrongdoing and recently gross misrepresentation of positions taken by Justice Claudette Singh in her ruling and consequential orders." Nascimento, who said he watched and monitored these programmes, recalled "last night [Straight Up host Mark] Benschop broadcast the rumour that Judge Singh had been threatened as a result of which she refused to issue an order removing the government. He then tries to excuse this by saying it is a rumour and he does not know if it is true... the effect was to use unfounded rumour to create the perception of fact." In the case of At Home with Roger, Nascimento referred to a December 27, 2000 broadcast where Roger Moore--without any facts at his disposal--made an accusation that the government had sold the Guyana Airways Corporation to Yesu Persaud in return for his having been part of the "nonsense of 1997". This was a clear allegation that Persaud was involved in the alleged misconduct of the elections, Nascimento said. He observed: "Not only is that completely defamatory reporting but in violation of the code". Nascimento added that Moore had severely damaged the airline by suggesting the pilots were to go on strike. Nascimento said that when he attempted to get copies of this broadcast and one of a Straight Up show where Benschop misled the audience by pretending to interview George W. Bush, the station manager Nicole Griffith had said no tapes were available. The owner of the station could not be contacted but Stabroek News spoke to Oneidge Walrond, attorney for the station, who said the company was certainly responsible for the talk show hosts. She said about Benschop: "Certainly, they have tried to find ways to harness him... they have some difficulties but so far they feel... they do not see him as a liability as yet for whatever reasons... it is a business after all." As for the media code, she suggested the company was interested in keeping within its guidelines and not signing it was probably an oversight. A check with the Elections Commission confirmed that none of the hosts nor the station owners had signed the code and that the station manager had told the commission that she was waiting to hear from the station's owner Noel Blackman. As regards University on Nine, Nascimento said he had watched one programme "where a series of callers indulged in inciting racial animosity and the host of the programme [Ronald Waddell] did nothing to deter, to correct or to discourage them. "The talk shows are irresponsible and quite consciously and deliberately violate the media code of conduct," Nascimento said, and identified three areas. "In failing to refrain from broadcasting matter likely to incite racial hatred or public disorder; failing to refrain from ridiculing, stigmatizing and demonizing people; and finally failing to hold themselves independent and free from political control and direction including from any political party." All of these violations showed that the Media Code of Conduct was being honoured in the breach, Nascimento said, and that the Elections Commission was toothless to punish any broadcaster, but it was not too late for the commission to be given powers to sanction deviant owners. It was all very nice to defend press freedom, but broadcasters in Guyana with its hypersensitive and easily misled populace had to have some restraints, he said. Nascimento, who is well known for his opposition to the state monopoly on broadcasting noted the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation's decision - since shelved - to hike political advertising rates. Its prior censorship of these commercials and the blocking of access to prime time was not in line with the code. But Nascimento queried the methods used to measure coverage by the Elections Commission's Media Monitoring Unit (MMU). "I think that the statistical weighing of media coverage is misleading in terms of measuring fair and balanced coverage. There are too many variables including the sporadic activities of parties." He also questioned the distinction the MMU has made between government and party coverage which he considered a rather grey area. Bob Norris adviser to the MMU when asked at an Elections Commission press conference about the issue said there was perhaps too much being read into the numbers. Only vast differences in negative or positive coverage over an extended period could be indicative that any media outlet was fundamentally biased. The fact that the government received a lot of attention was not in itself a bad thing as all media had some obligation to cover the activities of the elected executive. But the MMU also recognised that the activities of the incumbent government could affect elections. Norris said it was better to look at the examples of unbalanced reporting provided by the MMU rather than fixating on the numbers. Public relations consultant Hugh Cholmondeley recently called on the media to take its responsibilities more seriously. He warned that the talk shows in particular were contributing to racial polarisation not unlike that in Rwanda. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today