MMU roasts local talk show, “Wake Up Guyana”

May 26, 2015 News

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As it published its penultimate report of on coverage of the 2015 elections period, the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday registered discontent with a programme “Wake Up Guyana” aired on Elections Day.
The show was hosted by television personality, Basil Bradshaw, and broadcast on HBTV Ch. 9, at 09:00 hours that day, breaching the rules set out in Media Code of Conduct (MCC).
The report, released yesterday, came just about two weeks after the General and Regional elections concluded. It noted the imbalances between the negative and positive coverage offered by various media houses in the lead up to May 11 polls.
This Report highlighted the observations by the unit, its analyses and conclusions of the performances of the print and broadcast media vis-à-vis the 2015 Elections Media Code of Conduct (MCC).
It was spread over a two-week period spanning the pre-and post-elections periods, including ‘E-Day’, itself.
The MMU publicly registered its dismay and disquiet at the content of Bradshaw’s programme. The Unit said it found that the programme contravened many aspects of the MCC, but more specifically the rule circumscribing the activities of political parties prior to, and on voting day.
“More to the point, in the programme, the host aired footage of the APNU+AFC Rally held at Square of the Revolution, on Saturday, May 9, 2015,” it said.
It found that the airing of the footage was a contravention of Section N of the MCC, which pellucidly states that, “…no coverage of any activity by the political parties shall take place for a period to begin 24 hours prior to the opening of Polling Stations on the day of Polling. This ban will continue to the close of Polling Stations.”
It also noted by the Unit that the host made “uninformed comments about rumored incidences, which he never sought to verify before going public with the information. For example, he said that he heard that at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, “…somebody is distributing ID cards…”and,  “…there is a problem on the East Coast of Demerara…some ballots are not being stamped… some ballots have six digits at the top and five at the bottom…””
The Unit took the position that the public announcement of the above statements by the host of the programme, on the very day of the elections, without first validating their accuracy, “was tantamount to deliberately trying to ignite raw emotions in a way that could have led to the derailment of the elections through the eruption of public disorder.”
Since, no unrest resulted, the Unit views that as “testimony to the exercise of common sense and prudence by our citizenry, in the face of such callous incitement.”
The MMU also took umbrage to the selection and playing of two tunes with political content highly critical of the PPP/C. It said that it was distasteful and a subtle form of electioneering.
“It was, without doubt, the type of behaviour that confounds the universally hallowed rules governing media conduct on an election day,” the MMU noted.
“Moreover, there can be no excuse for the egregious parts of the programme that were allowed to be broadcast unedited, since it was the responsibility of the principal(s) of the Channel to inform their clients of the strictures of the MCC pertaining to programming prior to, during, and after elections day,” the body added.
The Unit said that it did not ignore several Television Channels that breached the 24-hour stipulation of the Code in connection with the broadcasting of activities by political parties, by broadcasting political party- produced Talk Shows/Interviews, and footage of rallies, after 06:00hrs the day before elections.
“The Channels guilty of this charge are: Channels 2, 6, 11, 67, and 69,” it revealed.
The final Report, the body said, will look at the media’s post-elections coverage of the new government, on one hand, and, on the other, the two political heavyweights – PPP/C and APNU+AFC – who would be taking up their respective quota of seats in the country’s 11th parliament.
Additionally, the body noted that elections day has come and gone. “At the end of it all, from the assortment of political parties that contested the elections, the electorate reposed a majority vote of confidence in the   Coalition – APNU+AFC – to lead the country for the next five years.”
As it congratulated the coalition, it said, “The new administration will be taking over the reins of Government buoyed by an overflow of goodwill from the masses. Indeed, as can be expected in the circumstance, a pervasive euphoric atmosphere currently dominates our beloved country, as citizens await with bated breath the formation of the cabinet and the direction(s) in which the new government will be taking the country.”
The 2015 MCC was signed-off by 23 media-related organizations in the country. GECOM’s Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) was fully endorsed as the sole entity to superintend the implementation of the Code.
The political entities covered in the recently released document are the now governing party, A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), the main opposition party, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C); The United Force (TUF), National Independent Party (NIP), Independent Party (IP), Healing The Nation Theocracy Party (HNTP), United Republican Party (URP), and Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP).

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