The Guyana Press Association (GPA) has written the relevant authorities registering its concerns about the burdensome constraints that are about to be imposed on media that may cover the GIPEX Conference, which is slated to commence on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, at the Marriott Hotel.
This is the South American country’s first official oil & gas summit, but a number of rules and regulations were imposed on the media by the organisers of the summit.
Among the impositions is the requirement that authorization must be sought before conference participants are interviewed.
A statement from the GPA on Tuesday noted that up to 5pm today, the Association’s correspondence was not even acknowledged. As such, the GPA urged media houses to boycott the event.
“We urge editors to strongly consider not covering GIPEX as this clearly opens the door to justify these and even more restrictions now and in the future that amount to nothing more than insulting and degrading treatment to the media.”
News Room, Demerara Waves and Stabroek News have since decided to support the GPA’s call not to cover the event.
The GPA sent its letter to Sagacity, the local entity apparently contracted to provide media communication services for the event. That letter has been copied to the Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Raphael Trotman and the Chief Executive Officer of GO-Invest, Owen Verwey.
Below is a list of restrictions imposed on the media:
- A Media Room will be available from which ALL accredited Media Personnel are permitted to operate
- The Opening Ceremony of the event will be open to full coverage for ALL accredited media
- All other sessions will be limited to PHOTOS ONLY in the first 10-minutes, except for those so identified for open coverage
- Daily updates and photos will be provided to all media by the GIPEX Communications Team
- Arrangements will be made by the GIPEX Communications Team to facilitate interviews between media personnel and key participants of the Summit/Exhibition
- Unauthorized interviews in the Conference Hall are not permitted. However, the media room provided will be available for pre-planned interviews.
- You are being provided with the full three-day conference agenda as a guideline to the sessions which will be taking place. Please note, as previously stated, NOT all sessions are opened for full media coverage.
- Kindly be reminded that once in the compound of the Marriott for the three-day event, ALL media personnel MUST be attired with their accreditation badges.
