Apparently the presidency, and not the judiciary, has the last say on legal rights

Dec 22, 2008 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Re: “Jagdeo decides who gets TV/radio licences,” (Kaieteur News, December 18). Just when the sustained applause of Guyanese was dying down, after the seemingly significant ruling by acting Chief Justice Ian Chang in favour of two Lindeners, Messrs. Mortimer Yearwood and Norman Chapman, in their landmark case against the state on the issuance of a licence to operate a radio station in Linden, Guyanese are now throwing their hands up in despair on hearing the news that the President, acting in his capacity as Information Minister, is the one responsible for issuing radio licences.

If the President, as Information Minister, did not see it fit to grant licences to applicants since 1999, on what basis will he now do so? It certainly can’t be because of Justice Chang’s ruling, because even Justice Chang, in his post-ruling comments, seems to have thrown the ball back into the President’s court.

He should have instructed the Government to act within four weeks, or show the court just cause! Failure by the Government would then have been treated as contemptuous, and fines would have been levied until the Government acted accordingly! Apparently, the presidency, not the judiciary, has the last say in matters of legal rights pertaining to the people of Guyana.

The presidency in Guyana under the late Forbes Burnham catered to an agenda of absolute control of everything and anything, in keeping with Burnham’s autocratic leadership style and the paramountcy of the PNC.

But for the PPP to come into power and have its President continue in that vein tells us that the PPP is really no different from the PNC. We should now know what to expect, seeing we’ve been down this road before!
Guyana is facing serious public safety and economic security issues that demand the engaging attention of the President, so it continues to reveal a lot about the mindset of the President when he can find the time, in the midst of all that is happening around him, to be determining which Guyanese living in certain parts of Guyana are eligible for radio licences. Isn’t this why he has other ministers and senior officials?

Then, again, given the President’s leadership style, his ministers and senior officials are either confused or afraid to make a decision without his input. What kind of confusing system is this? Case in point: your newspaper said both the NFMU’s Managing Director and Finance Manager have made it clear that the agency will only issue a licence after it is authorised by the Information Minister; but then Presidential Advisor Dr. Prem Misir contradicted them when he asserted that the NFMU was responsible for issuing licences ‘subject to the parameters’ (without specifying what these are).

Mr. Editor, earlier this year, the President called local TV operator Mr. CN Sharma into his office to discuss Mr. Sharma’s re-broadcasting on his TV outfit of a female caller’s threat on the President’s life if any of her relatives died at the hands of criminal elements.

Prior to this meeting, we were told that the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) did not recommend to the subject minister any punitive action be taken against Mr. Sharma, so when the President called in Mr. Sharma, we were shocked that he, and not Prime Minister Sam Hinds, was the subject minister responsible for communications and to whom the ACB reported.

Up to a few years ago, Prime Minister Hinds was always featured in news reports as having ministerial responsibility for communications; and on one occasion, was even reportedly accompanied by an NFMU official in the seizure of a TV transmitting device from a private business place.

So when exactly did the President take over the Prime Minister’s responsibility for communications? And why wasn’t this reported in the local media? In fact, why has no media house ever reported that since Moses Nagamootoo last served as Information Minister, the President has assumed that portfolio? Or is it a case where the President can assume any minister’s responsibility, at any time, without being publicly sworn-in, the information being placed in the public domain, such as via the Official Gazette?

Finally, while Justice Chang has a minor point that there was ‘no constitutional duty on the Government to enable anyone…to access ideas and information from any television network’, it is true, however, that the Constitution of Guyana does provide for Guyanese to obtain employment, and operating a radio station or television station is a means of providing employment.

How can he ignore this fundamental right of every Guyanese to create employment opportunities? Radio is not just about information and entertainment; it is also about employment!

I suggest Messrs. Yearwood and Chapman file a brief with the court, seeking further clarification from the court on their constitutional right to create employment opportunities by way of operating a radio station; and I also suggest that they seek a court’s order demanding that the Government respond within a specific time frame or show just cause; failing which the court should seek punitive action against the state.

The state is already on record taking punitive action against broadcasters on issues with which the state took umbrage; so let’s have a level playing field in which the people’s rights are also upheld and seen to be upheld!

Emile Mervin

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