MMU flays Kaieteur News for negative coverage of Govt
…says Stabroek News favours Opposition
The Kaieteur News came in for a strong bashing from the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the
reports and the opinions expressed in the newspaper’s elections coverage for the period under review.
The revelations were made as the MMU released its first report on the local media’s coverage of elections-related issues here.
Some media houses were criticised for what was described as the “swelling antipathy towards good journalism practices” and the lowering of standards.
The MMU therefore called on all media operatives to uphold their journalism ethics and principles in carrying out their mandates, while noting that some currently being exercised were of low standards.
Kaieteur News’ bias
The Kaieteur News was singled out for its negative coverage in several areas.
The negative coverage that the Government suffered in the Kaieteur News far outweighed the positive publicity it received.
In fact, the Government’s negative to positive ratio of coverage from the editorials was more than 3:1.
Comparatively, the Government’s negative coverage was approximately five times more the same coverage calculated for the People’s Progressive
Party/Civic (PPP/C), and 22 times that of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).
The Unit also called on Kaieteur News, CNS Channel 6 and the National Communications Network (NCN) for their skewed coverage.
Stabroek News
favours Opposition
The Stabroek News was heavily criticized in the report.
According to the MMU, during the course of the reporting period, the editorials of the Stabroek News churned out figures from which coverage for the Government, PPP/C and APNU+AFC was calculated in the following manner:
The Government and the APNU+AFC received small amounts of positive coverage, while the PPP/C did not register any like measurable coverage. APNU+AFC’s share of positive coverage was roughly double that of the Government.
In terms of negative coverage, the Government got a significant amount of negative publicity, the PPP/C was the recipient of a large amount of same, and the APNU+AFC came in for a relatively minor amount of negative coverage.
APNU+AFC was the only entity that gained net positive coverage in a ratio of over 2:1.
Dissimilarly, the Government accumulated a negative to positive ratio of coverage of 33:1, while the PPP/C’s coverage devoid of any measurable positive coverage was overwhelmingly negative.
Guyana Times/TVG
For the Guyana Times, the MMU cited just one “infraction” in a story carried on the APNU+AFC rally in Linden.
According to the MMU, for the month of March, the news team of Guyana Times’ sister company Television Guyana (TVG), through the Evening News/Morning News, provided coverage for the Government, PPP/C and APNU+AFC, with all three entities receiving large amounts of positive coverage.
While the Government attracted the most coverage, the APNU+AFC was second for the most positive coverage, followed by the PPP/C.
According to figures provided by media watchdog, the Evening News/Morning News gave the coalition an overall 60 per cent of positive coverage in the newscast, while the PPP/C had received 57.2 per cent.
From the talk shows and interviews aired on the channel over the past month, the Government got a small amount of positive coverage, the PPP/C a modest amount of the coverage, and the APNU+AFC, a small amount.
All three entities – Government, PPP/C and APNU+AFC – realised net positive coverage in this category of programming.
According to the Report, in “the opinions articulated by the writer(s) of the editorials of the Guyana Times, over the duration of this reporting period, the Government, PPP/C and APNU+AFC were profiled in the following manner: all three entities received positive coverage in varying amounts”.
The Government received a modest amount of positive coverage, the PPP/C gained a large amount of same, and the APNU+AFC attracted a relatively small amount of positive publicity.
The PPP/C gained the largest share of positive coverage, followed by the Government, with the APNU+AFC bringing up in the cellar.
Comparatively, the Government received exactly 11 times more positive coverage than the APNU+AFC, while the PPP/C gained a not-so considerable more positive coverage than the Government, but significantly more than the APNU/AFC by a margin of almost 13:1.
The general news section of the newspaper churned out figures which showed that the Government, PPP/C and APNU+AFC, gained significantly large amounts of positive coverage.
The Government gained the most, followed by the PPP/C, then APNU+AFC, in that order. On the negative side, the Government took in a large amount of negative coverage, the PPP/C a modest amount of same, and the APNU+AFC, a copious amount, the MMU said.
The APNU/AFC’s share of negative coverage in this section of the newspaper was more than that of the Government, more than that of the PPP/C, and more than the Government and PPP/C.
Guyana Chronicle
According to the MMU, the state-owned Guyana Chronicle gave the Government in excess of two times the positive coverage taken in by the PPP/C and nearly nine times the same coverage absorbed by APNU+AFC.
The PPP/C’s positive coverage was approximately three times APNU+AFC’s positive coverage. In the negative columns, the Government and the PPP/C captured comparably small amounts of negative coverage, while the APNU+AFC gained a significantly large amount of like coverage.
The APNU+AFC’s negative coverage was almost 157 times more than the Government’s, and 191 times more than the PPP/C. “All told, the Government’s positive to negative ratio of coverage was 416: 1; the PPP/C’s positive to negative ratio was 194:1.
The APNU+AFC suffered net negative coverage in a negative to positive ratio of just over 3:1,” the report said.