DOSES, a Guatemalan NGO concerned with journalism, has published some analysis of election coverage in all media. The September edition of Sala de Redacción, DOSES’s magazine, carries the result of a study it carried out and a poll of eighteen journalists it interviewed.
Its study was critical of the coverage of the election, finding it to be superficial and covering a largely limited range of issues: electoral violence, candidates’ activities and electoral logistics such as financing. Fundamental issues which might allow voters to make an informed choice were not really covered and how each party’s offering might match up to the demands of sectors of the population were not addressed. Women, young people and the indigenous, for example, seemed to be only shown as passive voters; what their opinions and aspirations for a new government might be were never explored. Equally, other controversial issues such as free trade, mining and other “mega-projects” such as dams and highways did not get discussed.
The poll of journalists indicated that editorial policy often led to small parties, the left and social organisations not being covered, though this was dressed up as “covering the poll leaders”. Non-television media generally seemed to make more efforts to be inclusive though. In this respect a comment by one journalist polled that “Todos los medios son empresas y todo se mueve por intereses” is interesting when we consider that all four TV channels in Guatemala are private and are owned by the Mexican Ángel González. Anecdotally one hears that at the start of an election season the leaders of the main, and best financed, parties troop off to Miami to discuss access to television coverage with Sr G. A discussion, produced in 2001, of the state of Guatemalan media can be found here.
While pointing out that there was not as much overt bias as in 2003 and that there are some encouraging signs, nevertheless the analysts at DOSES conclude that “there is a long way to go to get equitable and inclusive coverage”.
