Kaieteur News hailed for providing balanced, equitable coverage of elections – EU Observer Mission

Nov 19, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News has been highlighted in the EU Elections Observer Mission’s (EOM) final report on Guyana’s General and Regional Elections for providing balanced and equitable coverage of the elections.

In its report, the EU noted that while “the media in Guyana is vibrant and highly polarized,” during the elections, a few independent media including Kaieteur News maintained impartial coverage.

“State-owned Guyana Chronicle and government-aligned Guyana Times predominantly covered PPP/C, the incumbent president and the government in their front-page articles, whereas Kaieteur News and Stabroek News featured all the contesting parties, providing a more balanced and equitable coverage of the campaign.”

Additionally, the EU’s report provided a chart that shows KN providing up to 46 per cent coverage to the ruling People’s Progressive Party/ Civic government and 54 per cent coverage to the combined opposition which consisted of five opposition parties.

Stabroek News provided 53 per cent coverage to the PPP/C and 47 per cent to the combined opposition.

Further, among monitored news websites, the EU said News Source demonstrated more balanced coverage of the election campaign, providing space for multiple articles and featuring all the parties in an equitable way with a neutral tone of reporting.”

The report nonetheless pointed to the polarisation of the media during the election’s coverage. For instance, the mission said State media was instrumentalised to the exclusive benefit of the ruling party.

“State-run and most private outlets strongly favoured the ruling PPP/C limiting voters’ access to balanced information…state funded broadcasts largely excluded opposition voices and campaign coverage, leaving contestants without guarantees of balanced and equitable access,” the report stated.

It noted too that “A large part of State-run media’s electoral airtime comprised video and audio clips that promoted the ruling party but were not labelled as political advertising. An overall duration of such videos and audios was, respectively, 11 hours on NCN TV and one hour nine minutes on the Voice of Guyana radio.”

The report said that up to two per cent of prime-time political coverage of the State-run channels featured APNU and up to one per cent WIN, while all other parties were practically excluded from the election related airtime.”

It continued that “such coverage runs counter to the public service remit of State-run media, to the detriment of voters’ access diverse information. Among broadcast media, only privately-owned HGPTV was inclusive, with news airtime equitably divided among all parties and mostly neutral in tone. Privately-owned HJ Boom Radio featured oppositional parties mostly in its paid for airtime.”

The report said that overall reporting was shaped by partisanship, confrontational relations with political actors, and occasional threats or legal pressure on journalists.

“Independent broadcasters and print outlets provided more balanced coverage, yet the absence of effective safeguards and the overlap between government communication and campaign activities further constrained pluralistic and objective reporting.”

According to the report, discrimination of the independent media did not stop there as a few independent journalists were singled out and verbally attacked by high-ranking government officials and their supporters at public events and on online.

The document highlighted instances where “a few reporters faced threats of legal action by government ministers, who considered their reporting as defamatory, which further contributed to the chilling effect on media environment.

“In parallel, the government withheld payments to independent newspapers for already printed advertising…At the same time, some opposition figures also made harsh public commentary towards journalists perceived to be aligned with the government. In addition, some journalists openly campaigned for contesting parties across the country, mostly the PPP/C, further reducing the integrity of independent reporting and public trust in media.”

Further, the document said that a large part of State-run media’s electoral airtime comprised video and audio clips that promoted the ruling party but were not labelled as political advertising.

“Broadcast coverage of the election campaign monitored left voters with limited objective information. Monitored print media demonstrated similar trends as the broadcast media.”

The EU said the incidences point to a need for the recommendations for rules for political parties, transparency in campaign financing including on-line, controls on the misuse State resources, and improved regulation for the media, including oversight on digital platforms.

The mission also pointed to need for established media campaign coverage rules on equitable airtime and space for electoral contestants as well as political advertising, in a timely and consultative manner.

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• Elections, EU Observer Mission, impartial coverage, Kaieteur News

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