Broadcast monitors have 13 criteria to follow
Stabroek News
May 20, 2002
The Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) has issued a set of 13 criteria to its staff members who monitor television programmes aired in the Georgetown area.
The staff man and record television programmes from 7 am - 10 p.m., but have facilities for monitoring programmes outside these hours if some programme that might be controversial is to be aired.
Budgetary constraints prevent the ACB from monitoring the transmissions throughout the day and the transmission of stations outside the Georgetown area.
However, according to Ron Case, a member of the three-man committee, the stations they have visited outside the Georgetown area have been asked to keep accurate records of their transmissions.
This is not now a requirement of the law, but it was recommended for inclusion in the proposed broadcast legislation that would establish an independent broadcast authority. The other members of the committee are chairman, Pat Dial, a lecturer at UG and media consultant, Carlton James. The President nominated Dial, the Leader of the Opposition nominated Case and the Private Sector Commission nominated James. They were all appointed by Prime Minister Sam Hinds, whom they are to advise on the implementation of the regulations of the Post and Telegraph Act he promulgated in July 2000.
The ACB raised eyebrows last week when it said it had no mandate to pronounce on the appropriateness of the broadcast by some television stations of a tape featuring notorious prison escapee Andrew Douglas. The ACB in a statement said that if it were to do the bidding of complainants in relation to sanctions it "would become simply another combative force in the melee. That is not our intention or mandate". The ACB statement said that the committee was "a force for moral suasion, technical and professional improvement and a catalyst for placing `ethics' high on the agenda of the broadcast industry in Guyana". Prime Minister Hinds has since told Stabroek News that he will ask the ACB to reconsider its decision not to pronounce on the tape.
Case told reporters on Friday that all call-in, religious programmes and films shown during the day were monitored. The films are checked for pornographic content and violence to which children might be exposed while viewing television during the day.
Slander/libel, promotion of, or incitement to racial hatred, deliberate distortion of information, stereotyping of social and ethnic groups, lack of accuracy and balance in reporting, disrespect of the religious sensibilities of people and offending good taste and decency are some of the categories the monitors are asked to identify and to assess the degree of infringement.
Other things which the staff look for are programmes whose content promote or incite crime or public disorder and pose or become a threat to the security of the nation. Critics argue that the broadcast of the Douglas tape fall well within the ambit of the latter and other categories. Offending good taste and decency or ridiculing, stigmatising or demonising people on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation and physical or mental ability are other infringements looked for.
They also monitor programmes for expressed infringement of copyright. In addition to the list of infractions the monitors are also provided with guidelines to help them to determine the category of the infringement.
According to Case, when acting independently of any complaint, the ACB would engage the television station to nudge it towards an acceptable standard of programming.
Only when these efforts fail, would it bring the issue to the attention of the Prime Minister with a recommendation as to how he should deal with it.
In the event that a member of the public makes a formal complaint, Case said, the station would be notified of the complaint. Steps would then be taken to resolve the issue at level of the complainant and the station. Where this fails the ACB would then intervene to try to effect a resolution.
However, Case said, in the event that there was a clear breach, which the station acknowledges but refuses to rectify, the issue would be referred to the Prime Minister with a recommendation as to how he should proceed. The referral is likely to range from issuing advice to revocation of the licence and the committee is yet to confirm in detail what the range will be.
The committee has received a number of complaints and is in the process of dealing with them. As a result it declined discussing them, explaining that the complainants would expect that their complaints would be treated with some degree of confidentiality.
Case said that one of its objectives is to promote self-regulation in the industry with the broadcasters setting the standards with which they must comply.
He said the committee has visited half of the 26 channels operating in the country, including all the stations broadcasting in Berbice, to discuss with them the committee's functions and what it would expect of the stations.
Case said that the committee had won wide acceptance from the licensees and attributed this to the committee's united approach to the discharge of its mandate even though the members have each been nominated by different sections of the community.
He stressed that they saw themselves as having to work in the interest of the Guyanese people rather than representing any particular interest. This is the only way, he said, that the committee would be able to successfully discharge its mandate during its term of office.