I welcome the report of the Gecom Media Monitoring Unit for the month of March 2015. It is well written and has not shied away from making firm conclusions on developments as it saw fit. The issue that concerns me however is what next? The March 10 “rivers of blood” editorial is not the first occasion on which the Guyana Chronicle, a state-owned newspaper, has spewed such hate. Anyone who can write with such venom is unlikely to bother with any adverse finding unless backed by some real sanction which the MMU is unable to impose, since it has no such power.
These reports might make useful reading and some of their findings will be noted in the Observers’ reports. But that would be after the elections are over and will have no practical effect on the outcome, while the hate-mongering by the Chronicle most likely will. And because the Chronicle and their employers know that, there is no reason why they would stop unless they are forced to confront the consequences of their criminal conduct.
The problem in my view lies with Gecom, which has constitutional responsibility for ensuring that elections are free and fair. The MMU is appointed by Gecom and its report should be submitted to Gecom for consideration and action. Gecom should then have immediately referred this report to the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions with a view to prosecution. It does not need any member of the public to tell Gecom that some of the matters addressed in the report point to criminal offences under at least two Acts.
Gecom must act now to address the rapid descent into outright lawlessness in this election season. Another MMU report is not likely to be published until after the May 11 election. But another report is not what we most need. Instead, we need free and fair elections in which no party or group hijacks the state media and corrupts the electoral process. And we need those who break the laws to be punished.