We Need More From Guyana’s Local Media; The People Deserve a Press Corp That Refuses to be Cowed by the Ruling Party

by Randy Gopaul
In the lead-up to these critical elections, I’ve made a decision: instead of my usual weekly column, I will write daily. The urgency demands it. And today, what’s on my mind is the Guyanese media.

Why is it that the Carter Center, the U.S. Embassy, overseas activists, and international watchdogs are the ones doing the work that should be led by our local press? Where are the investigative exposés? Where is the accountability? Too often, our media houses settle for a lazy “he said, she said” story, publish it, and move on. But democracy demands more. GECOM is entrusted with one of the most sacred responsibilities in this country, the conduct of free and fair elections, yet the people who lead it are rarely scrutinized. That is the media’s job. And right now, the media is failing.

Look at the coverage. From the bloated GECOM list, to reports of phones inside voting booths, to other irregularities, reporting has been watered down, stripped of teeth. How many media houses have accessed the list of electors and entrusted someone with the responsibility of disaggregating the data, asking questions, highlighting anomalies, only 1, Village Voice News, a tiny publication with very little advertising. How is the media to report on the ‘bloat’ in the list if they don’t even understand the list? Meanwhile, every Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo convenes his weekly “cuss out” session with the press. Most sit there, nodding along, rarely pressing him, rarely holding him accountable. Svetlana Marshall’s encounter with the disrespectful Irfaan Ally makes her stand out as one of the few journalists in this country to show us what real reporting looks like. Her work was a reminder of what the nation deserves.

Instead, what we see is media houses operating as conveyor belts for propaganda. Many simply reprint the government’s DPI releases as if they were facts. One outlet I am monitoring has carried PPP headlines as its main story nearly every day during this election period. Another, which is supposed to be “independent,” spends its time trying to manufacture division in the opposition. If this is independence, then we are lost.

This is not just bad journalism, it is dangerous. In this era of social media, inexpensive equipment, and frustrated citizens with their own voices, traditional media will find itself increasingly irrelevant if it does not do its job. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does the public sphere. When the media fails to pursue truth and hold power to account, others will step in. But what fills that vacuum is not always reliable, not always factual, and not always safe for democracy.

The people of Guyana deserve better. They deserve a media that digs, questions, investigates, and challenges. They deserve a press corps that refuses to be cowed by the ruling party, that understands its role is not to be a friend of the PPP, or of any party, but to be a friend of the people.

The fourth estate has always been a pillar of democracy. If it collapses, if it chooses comfort over courage, then democracy itself begins to falter. It’s time for our journalists and editors to decide which side of history they want to be on.