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Kwame McCoy, others evaluated radio licence applicants
President’s Press and Publicity Officer in Office of the President, Kwame McCoy, was among those who approved the issue of new radio licences. One of the licences was granted to the best friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo in a process veteran broadcaster Cathy Hughes described as unfair.
Kwame McCoy
“It is absolutely clear that the system does not provide fairly and equitably for everybody,” Hughes, a Member of Parliament, said yesterday.
She said that it was unfair that applications that were sitting for some 15 years were not considered when the ten new radio licences were recently issued under the hand of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
One of the new licencees already on air is owned and operated by Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop, the best friend of Jagdeo.
Those who evaluated the applicants, apart from McCoy, were Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon; Network Administration at the Office of the President, Roy Jagnandan; and Head of the Project Cycle Management Division of the Ministry of Finance, Tarchand Balgobin.
“I don’t see anybody there that could be considered independent or technically competent,” Hughes told a press conference yesterday.
According to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, in response to questions posed by Mrs Hughes, entities with applications more than five years old were written to confirm their continued interest. Only those who re-confirmed were considered.
But this had to be a blatant untruth. Neither Kaieteur News nor Stabroek News was written to.
Among the criteria used for evaluating the applications were experience and capability in the broadcasting and communication fields, “fit and proper” (background security checks and current and previous business ventures) and “spectrum considerations.”
According to the Prime Minister, no formal scoring system was used to determine who will get a licence, but that the applications were considered on their merits.
Just before he left office in the run up to the November 28, 2011 elections, Jagdeo granted licences to Dr Ramroop’s Television Guyana, the Matthews Ridge Community Council, Little Rock Television Station, Alfro Alphonso and Sons Enterprise, New Guyana Company Limited, National Television Network, Hits and Jams Entertainment, Wireless Connections, Mr Rudy Grant, Telcor and Cultural Broadcasting, and Linden Wireless Communication Network.
For Hughes, a Parliamentarian with the seven-seat Alliance for Change (AFC) the process smacks of favouritism to benefit those closely aligned to the Jagdeo government.
She said that she knows personally of one application by someone who has been recognised as a pioneer in the broadcast industry in Guyana and the Caribbean, but this individual was not given a licence.
Cathy Hughes
While it is the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) that determines the frequency under which the stations will broadcast, the Minister of Information – a portfolio assigned to the President – has the prerogative to grant licences.
Enrico Woolford, who studied international telecommunications policy, has repeated his call for the NFMU to publish who is allocated or operating on what frequency, either for public or cable broadcasting.
“The airwaves are a limited public resource and the public needs to know who owns what or who was allocated what,” Woolford stated.
The licences under Jagdeo may very well have been issued under the Wireless and Telegraph which has now been overtaken by the Broadcast Act.
Recently, the Chairman of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority, Bibi Shadick, said that previous applications for radio and television licences, some of which were pending for years, have been set aside.
Hughes said that she expected that the licences granted just before Jagdeo left office would have been set aside and have those applicants abide by the new rules.
Hughes said that the system under which those licences were issued under Jagdeo smacked of secrecy. She said that the matter of issuing a licence should be as open as possible given the important role broadcasters play in society.
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