Guyanese Journalists trained for electoral coverage in Panama

Jul 10, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in partnership with the European Union (EU) and the Office of the Prime Minister of Guyana hosted a one-day training for Guyanese journalists in Panama on Tuesday.

The training sought to equip journalists with the necessary skills for accurate and transparent election reporting as Guyana prepares for the upcoming general and regional elections.

The workshop, hosted in Panama City, brought together 16 journalists. The training focused on integrity of information in media and digital platforms, the use of artificial intelligence in the analysis of political events, the generation of news, and the role of journalism and journalistic goods practices in electoral coverage.

In an interview with the press, Javin Singh, Press and Information Officer for the Delegation of the EU to Guyana, explained the reasoning behind the workshop. “A few months ago, we decided that, given the fact that elections are going to be this year, we wanted to expose the journalists who will be specifically covering elections, the newer technologies and the newer things that are happening where election reporting is concerned,” Singh said.

Guyana’s general and regional elections are among the most critical, sensitive, and intense periods for media coverage and public information dissemination. As such, Singh emphasised the vital role of the media during this time, stating, ‘At the end of the day, you are the buffers between politicians. The integrity of the electorate looks to you for credible and transparent information.”

He also highlighted the EU’s continued support for democratic processes in Guyana, including the funding of past election-related training sessions. For this elections, the EU had implemented an Election Observation Mission ( EOM) to monitor the electoral process.

Programme Manager of International IDEA in Guyana, Marcelo Varela-Erasheva, also emphasised the importance of equipping journalists with the knowledge and tools to responsibly disseminate information, especially in addressing disinformation, misinformation, and ensuring the integrity of content during the election period. “Information is of the essence. It’s a business for the understanding of the process, the reach of the elections for democracy, it’s key.  And journalists, traditional media influencers, have a key role in generating what we call here a climate of public opinion that is favourable or not for the consolidation, improvement, and development of democracy,” he said.

‘At International IDEA, it’s key that the public opinion makers, influential over the population, also play a role of, let’s say, information and civic education for the citizenry, for the electorate, to understand what’s relevant for the democracy of this process.  We all look for quality information.  This information, which we learned during the sessions, which is the malicious use of true or false information, or misinformation, which is the lack of appropriate information, is key in generating that climate of public opinion that might be favourable or not for a peaceful development of the electoral process,” Varela-Erasheva added.

He also warned that the spread of false or misleading information, whether intentional or not poses a serious threat to democracy, stating, “It erodes the foundations of a healthy democracy.  As we discussed, in terms of disseminating incorrect, inaccurate information, harms the trustworthiness of the people on the process. The problem of lying to the people is not to make them believe falsehoods, is that they’re going to end up not believing anything. And that’s harmful for the country, that’s harmful for the rule of law.”

Varela-Erasheva noted that International IDEA continues to support the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) by providing technical assistance in producing voter education materials, including brochures and banners to be displayed at polling stations nationwide.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed president of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Iva Wharton, welcomed the training as a valuable opportunity, especially for young journalists covering this year’s elections.  She said, “I’m grateful for this opportunity to benefit from this training. I know that with elections coming up in Guyana, disinformation is going to be high and with the knowledge that we gather here, we should see improvement in the way stories are done, how we give the public information. Some of the information is not new but a lot of it is new.  Too many of us, even though we have been in media for years, a lot of the information is new.  I know for any young journalists who came here, this is a great opportunity for them to also improve on how they tell their stories.”

She also thanked the European Union and International IDEA on behalf of the media community. “I hope that we can have more collaborations in this regard,” she said.

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• electoral coverage, European Union, Guyana Elections, Guyanese Journalists, Panama

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