The Guyana Press Association today said it is standing firmly behind over twenty media workers who walked out of providing coverage to the annual Officers’ Conference of the Guyana Defence Force.
Media workers assigned to cover the conference walked out this morning over what they considered “gross disrespect” to their profession.
The private and state media workers complained that after being invited to cover the conference at 9:30am, they were made to stay in a cramped waiting room for a long period.
Eventually, when they were ushered to the conference area, the meeting was already in progress and there were no systems in place to accommodate them or their equipment.
However, the President’s press team and the press team from the Department of Public Information and the army were already in place.
The Press Association in its statement said the Guyana Defence Force needs to be reminded of the importance of the media, not only as a group but as a major partner that also works to ensure the integrity and sovereignty of this country.
“The media does not work in a vacuum and its members should be treated with the respect it deserves”, the statement said.
The GPA also reminded the GDF of an official correspondence it sent a week ago to look at cooperation and planning of coverage of army issues. That letter is still to be acknowledged.
In brief comments to the media, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Shahoud explained that the conference was dealing with sensitive security matters and that was the reason the media was not invited to cover the entire conference. The media was invited to cover the President’s statement to the conference only.
The same situation was in place last year.
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