GNBA collaborates with GECOM for upcoming elections

Nov 16, 2019 News

Executives of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) met with the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Thursday to discuss collaboration for the upcoming elections in March of next year.

The Board of GNBA along with the Executives of GECOM discussing their collaboration for the elections in March

Furthermore, the executives of GNBA present at the meeting include the Chairman, Mr. Leslie Sobers; Board Member and Chair of the Monitoring and Compliance Committee, Ms. Jocelyne Josiah; Board Secretary, Mrs. Violet Boyer; Head of the Monitoring and Compliance Department, Ms. Christina Bianchini; and Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joel Ally.
The Chairperson of GECOM, Justice Claudette Singh; Chief Elections Officer, Mr. Keith Lowenfield; and Public Relations Officer, Ms. Yolanda Ward represented the Guyana Elections Commission at the meeting.
In his introductory remarks, the GNBA Chairman gave a synopsis of the mandate of the GNBA and the scope of the Authority with respect to its monitoring parameters and capacity. GECOM has a wider mandate as it relates to monitoring during the elections period.
It is the intention of the Authority to collaborate with the Guyana Elections Commission and the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) during such important period was alluded to by the Chairman.
Besides, Mr. Sobers explained that the Authority, similar to ERC and GECOM, monitors for content that may incite racial hatred or crime and public disorder, with respect to broadcasting.
He pointed out that enshrined in the Broadcasting Act, there is a fairness doctrine which means that broadcasters when dealing with controversial issues must cater for balance and fairness with respect to treatment, time and space allocation.
In addition, Board member, Jocelyne Josiah, of GNBA informed GECOM representatives that there is an entire department at GNBA that monitors content.
She proffered that the Code of Conduct for GECOM needs to be reviewed and updated in preparation for the upcoming elections, which GECOM representatives agreed.
Public Relations Officer of the GNBA, Mr. Joel Ally, noted that the populace is gradually moving away from the mainstream media.
To that effect, he noted that Social Media is continuously growing. He added that reporters, in addition to signing on to the Media Code of Conduct, should also reflect those principles stipulated in the Code of Conduct, when posting content and opinions on social platforms; being cognizant of the fact that they have influence on their followers.
Most importantly, the GNBA will soon be allocating its representative to work in collaboration with GECOM and the ERC.
According to GNBA, this will develop and operationalise a collaborative framework to ensure that the proposed tripartite engagement is successful and beneficial to all parties involved.
It further stated that it will most significantly create an environment that is peaceful and conducive for citizens before, during and after the upcoming elections.

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