DEAR EDITOR,
Regional Executive Officer of Region 10, Mr Orrin Gordon, has commended the coverage provided by the media in Region 10 to its statutory meetings over the past four years. Gordon commended the media during this month’s statutory meeting where he said that the media’s role was critically important in advancing development through public education and building cohesive relationships among the various committees.
“I must applaud the media for their role during the coverage of the monthly statutory meetings of the RDC and to say that while we would not have always received positive coverage from the media for what we were doing. I can say that their active and investigative courage has certainly kept us on our feet,” Gordon said. He stressed that the media as the fourth estate plays a pivotal role and noted that it took some councillors a while to understand that the media’s role is equally as important as theirs.
He said that it is his wish that when the next council is sworn in that the media will continue holding the councillors and other public officials within the region accountable as highlighting and or publicising what they are doing is very important. “The media kept the public informed, they ensured that the residents were educated and sensitised on what was taking place so that persons were not left in the dark as the public needs to know how the decisions taken at the statutory meetings will and are affecting them. As such, I would like to commend the media while we did not attract several media houses those that patiently and diligently attended certainly did a remarkable job. As the Clerk of the Council and REO for Region 10, I would like to join with the other officers within the administration to publicly thank and congratulate them,” Gordon said.
Regional Chairman Renis Morian said that like the REO, he was impressed with the coverage provided and felt that other RDCs should emulate what Region 10 did. He said that no council can build a truly cohesive relationship among the councillors without including the media, noting that it is the media who will help in better disseminating information from the RDC meetings.
“When I started as the Regional Chairman in 2015, there were a number of concerns from some councillors about the media actively attending and covering the meetings as some persons felt that the media would want to push their own agenda. However, I indicated that the media should and will be allowed as they have a responsibility also to the public. I will admit that there were times that I was not pleased in how some media houses carry stories but overall I am satisfied that the main objective of educating and informing the public was certainly achieved,” RC Morian said.
He echoed similar sentiments from the REO that the media houses in Region 10 have certainly benefitted from covering a number of activities and events taking place within the region, noting that two of the journalists that consistently attended RDC meetings were winners at both the Guyana Press Association and the PAHO Media Awards recently. This, he said, is certainly an indication that the media were active within the region. He is hopeful that they will continue their aggressive coverage of issues that are of national and regional importance.
“As a region, we must ensure that the media is involved in the dissemination of information to the residents as while the councillors will disseminate to their constituents, we must ensure that it is disseminated accurately and balanced and the media’s role is one that will allow them to do just that. This will ensure that the information is not twisted to suit anyone’s personal and or political agendas,” the Regional Chairman declared.
Public Relations Department
Regional Democratic Council
Region 10
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