Controlled Access

May 08, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

World Press Freedom Day which was celebrated last week in Guyana, provided an example of how the media in a small society can assume a false sense of self-importance.
It also demonstrated the historical tension which exists between the government and the media as to who needs who the most.
The local media used the opportunity of World Freedom Day to complain about lack of access to the government.
It bemoaned the fact that the President is not holding regular press conferences. It was concerned about fake news. The local media also was aggrieved by what it perceived as government interference in the media.
Governments all over the world dominate the news. In the developed world there is no state media. It is only in small societies like Guyana where the private media is forced to compete with the state media.
The private media, in countries like Guyana, is therefore in a far more disadvantageous position that their colleagues in the developed world.
The local media is not going to overcome this disadvantage if it continues to delude itself into believing that it is important to the political elites.
The private media in Guyana has always felt that without it the politicians would not enjoy reach and credibility with the public.
The private media should avoid internalizing the debate as to who needs each other more – the government or the media. It is not helpful to them.
The media in Guyana lives in a bubble of self-importance. The Granger administration has punctured that bubble.
The government has refused to genuflect to the media. The government is on a path to ensure that it is media who needs the government more than the government needs the media.
There is, therefore, a tension which exists between the local media and the government.
The local media feels that the government should be more engaged with it. The government, on the other hand, has a different approach, one in which it is directing the plot.
This conflict is what is causing the media to demand that the President of Guyana hold a press conference. The media is not really interested in the President holding a press conference.
The media, in making the demand, is essentially asserting it has a right to interview the President. It has no such right. This is about the media wanting to feel important. The media wants to feel needed by the government.
The President of Guyana is being shielded and screened from the local media. Those concerned with the President’s image are taking no chances. They are protecting him from adverse publicity. They are shielding him from hostile questions. They are screening access to him. This is similar to the media strategy of the government – controlled access.
The President has only held a few press conferences since he assumed office, opting instead to communicate his positions through a tightly-controlled programme called The Public Interest, where, according to the local press corps, the questions have to be vetted and which allows only limited participation of journalists outside of the state media.
The local media, without saying so in words, essentially sees the programme as being stage managed. Yet, the members of the private media allow themselves to be wooed into participation, for the chance of asking a few questions. Who really needs who?
If the local media would only deflate their ego, they would realize that they are being used. Through their participation in the The Public Interest, the very local media which is complaining about lack of access is being thrown crumbs and groveling for these crumbs. The local media fraternity is disrespecting itself by accepting an invitation to be part of such a tightly-controlled programme.
The local media should not allow itself to be used in this way. If it is opposed in principle to the lack of access to the government, it should not accept conditional access to the government.
At the same time, the media must not continue to believe that the government needs them. The government is clearly sending another message, one that says that it is the media which needs the government more.

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