Jagdeo should return issuance authority to ACB

Dec 09, 2008 News

— Ramjattan

Robert Corbin

By Gary Eleazar
Alliance For Change Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan says that President Bharrat Jagdeo should immediately return the authority to issue radio/television licences to the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB).
According to Ramjattan, the Head of State had usurped the powers of the ACB for the purpose of suspending the licence of Chandra Narine Sharma, the proprietor of CNS TV 6.
President Jagdeo, in his capacity as Minister of Information, had effected the suspension of the broadcast licence of CNS 6.
The ACB was set up as an interim body until a permanent body would be instituted with the coming into effect of the broadcast legislation.
Ramjattan pointed out that the return of authority to the ACB must be done before any new licences are issued, given that there could be inferred political bias as it relates to who is issued with one.
Ramjattan also said that, were the President to be objective in the issuance of any new licence, there would still be the claim of bias among the populace, and especially among the skeptics.

Khemraj Ramjattan

During a recent Parliamentary debate that highlighted the issue of television licences, Ramjattan had indicated that the Government’s policy of not permitting expansion of services of existing licences like CNS TV Channel 6 and VCT Channel 28 emphasises its total control.
The debate in the House was aimed at having the National Assembly approve the two stations to beam their signals into Linden, which at present only has access to the National Communications Network (NCN).
The motion was defeated, but Presidential Advisor and Member of Parliament Gail Teixiera had announced that the Government was prepared to exercise its right to issue radio/television licences.
“This is control freakism by Government in this area of activity. That is why NCN is allowed to set up relay stations and beaming towers to make its coverage almost national, whereas others like Sharma cannot. NCN has relay towers at Linden, Long Creek, Anna Regina, New Amsterdam, Drill, Mahaicony, and Benab, No. 63 Village (Corentyne). This allows it to take to the people all its propaganda,” Ramjattan noted.
Recently, leader of the main Opposition, the PNCR, Robert Corbin, had expressed his alarm and concern at the comments made by Teixeira that the Government was prepared to now start issuing TV and radio licences.
His concern was with the fact that Government would now work to distance itself from the communiqué signed between Corbin and President Bharrat Jagdeo in 2003, which froze the issuance of licences until legislation is put in place.
Corbin recently stated that to be able to issue licences ‘as is’ is exactly what the Government wanted.
The communiqué, according to Corbin, sought to assure that there are no political considerations attached to issuing licences.
“That is why there was a restriction…we wanted to remove political discussion in the issuance of licences.”
According to Corbin, the freeze on issuance of licences was supposed to have been four months, within which time the broadcast legislation would have been effected.
He emphasized that he had insisted on the four-month freeze to ensure that the Government did not use the period to issue numerous licences to whom it preferred, hence making the Broadcast Authority “a rubber stamp.”
He said that this was one of the reasons that an independent broadcast authority would have removed political considerations in the issuance of licences.
“They will get their supporters and those who will carry the political line…to grant licences to.”

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