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Judiciary and Press Association host workshop on reliable and responsible reporting
Participants of the workshop hosted by the Judiciary and the GPA
Kaieteur News – The Judiciary of Guyana in collaboration with the Guyana Press Association (GPA) on Saturday hosted a workshop aimed at guiding journalists on how to report on legal matters.
The workshop which was held at Ballet Room of the Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown was themed, “Promoting public trust and confidence through improved access to information, and reliable and responsible reporting.”
Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag), Yonette Cummings-Edwards spoke of the importance of journalism and the work of all media workers.
“The importance of the work that you do, cannot be over emphasized, you members of the media cannot therefore and must not put your light under a bushel. That is, you have to keep your good qualities and abilities to always to the fore, do not make it a secret or hide it from others,” she said.
Justice Cummings-Edwards reminded that both the judiciary and the media serve the public and reminded that no person is above the law.
“We are here to serve the public, we are not above the law and you have the right of access to information of what is going on inside of the court, subject to the limitation where the law prohibits restrictions of certain matters.”
Further, the Chancellor called on media representatives to conduct their duties fairly.
“We can face criticisms but we ask that your criticisms be fair… that your criticisms be constructive…” she pleaded.
Meanwhile, the President of the GPA, Nazima Raghubir lamented the high turnover of media workers while noting that this poses a grave challenge in terms of maintaining an experienced cadre of media professionals.
“This is not a unique challenge to the media landscape in Guyana, but I must say it is one of the challenges that continue to rob the press of experienced and trained journalists,” Raghubir said.
Raghubir noted that media personnel must be informed and trained on the issues and structure of the law, before they report.
She said, “Today’s exercise provides useful, practical, and expert guidance on the judiciary and a system on which the entire country depends and places high expectations. This is an opportunity for the journalists here today not only to understand the system and how it works but use this as a yardstick deepening our knowledge about the judiciary and how you would apply this to the beats you already cover.”
The GPA president said too that Saturday’s workshop afforded the media and the judiciary the opportunity to learn from each other, particularly the challenges facing media workers.
Additionally, Raghubir assured the judiciary of her support particularly in face of persons ridiculing decisions of the judicial officers.
“Permit me, at this stage, to stand in unequivocal solidarity with members of the judiciary whose decisions are being ridiculed rather than criticised constructively in a sophisticated manner. Those who brand themselves as media and are sheltered by another arm of the government must know that public trust and confidence in the legal system is the lone stable band upon which a nation depends when all else fails,” she said.
- Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag), Guyana Press Association, Nazima Raghubir, Supreme Court of Justice, Workshop, Yonette Cummings-Edwards
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