The long and hard debate continues

Apr 25, 2014 Editorial

These days the media seem to have been caught between a rock and a hard place. Of course, they have a duty to present the best possible image of the country and at the same time they have a duty to report on the happenings in the country.
To read the daily and weekend papers seems to be reading a litany of criminal activities in the country. Such are the crime reports that to the overseas-based Guyanese who follow the daily happenings via the Internet, Guyana must be the crime capital of the world.
There is no day that the media do not report some serious crime. People are shot and killed, armed robberies are commonplace as are rapes and execution-type murders. Then there are the occasional reports of bodies turning up at odd locations including the seawalls and on back streets. Several weeks ago there was a kidnapping, with the victim being later found in Le Repentir Cemetery.
The nonsense does not end there. The police, as is their duty, issue daily bulletins of happenings in the country. At least eight out of ten times, these bulletins contain crime reports across the country.
We accept it as our duty to inform our readers and viewers in the case of television of the happenings across the length and breadth of the country. That is why we report on the criminal activities.
Some time ago, the national leaders asked local reporters to downplay the incidence of crime. Indeed, visitors were coming to the country and the idea was to give them a good picture of the country. But something happened and the media had to report.
It is unthinkable for the media to come together to reach a consensus that they would ignore the crime reports. If they do, the victims would come knocking at their gates to have their plight reported. And in any case, the bottom line is to sell a quality product that is informative.
Some people refuse to access the various forms of media because they claim that the news depresses them.
But what could we do? We in the media function under the precept that people have the right to know and so we provide them with the information. Often our reports help some people in the society protect themselves. But these reports are also blamed for creating discomforting conditions.
We have no evidence that the reports spur additional crimes, nor do we have evidence that if we fail to report the crimes then there would be a drop in the incidence. We do know that people are affected in many ways and there are those among us who act responsibly by not reporting all the gory details.
Quite often media entities do not even report rapes out of the need to protect the character and reputation of the victims. The wider society is not aware that many robberies in homes are accompanied by rapes.
And so we come back to the burning question. Do we report the crimes in the society? Do we report them in the barest of details and hide them away inside the newspaper? Or do we do what we believe we are supposed to do and supply all the information at our disposal to our readers and viewers?
This will continue to be a long and hard debate. There are going to be those who would say that we should and those who would say that we should not. Over the past few days we have been in the position where we had to report on some gruesome murders and some daring robberies. These appeared on our front pages and websites. We are sure that before the week is out there will be more.

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