State media in many countries are independent

Jul 28, 2011 News

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…VOA only broadcasts outside US – says Prof Lublin in Berbice

American University Professor David Lublin told participants at a lecture hosted by the Upper Corentyne Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UCCCI) on Wednesday that even though many countries have State media entities, those media are governed and run by “independent authorities”.
He was giving a lecture to an audience that comprised businessmen, academics and residents of Berbice at the UCCCI’s office at #78 Springlands, Corriverton.
Dr Lublin was responding to a question from an audience member about “the PPP saturating the airwaves 24 hours a day with political propaganda” from the State television station and wondered if this was also happening in the United States.
Prof. Lublin used the example of the “government voice” of the USA, the Voice of America (VOA) which, under U.S. Law, is not allowed to broadcast within the United States “because we’re afraid of politicising our own people”.
He said that while other governments own “substantial” media like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Britain and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Canada, the government in the U.S. does not own or control the media.
“The BBC is very independent of the government of today and often times highly critical of it….Usually the BBC is giving the government a very hard time,” he said.
He said that is usually a “norm” in those societies where the State media is independently operated.
He noted that as part of the norm in British society, for example, if the Prime Minister tried to overtly put a story in the BBC, he would be forced to leave or resign at the end of the week by public outcry for him trying to “manipulate the media”.
The lecture focused on political issues relating to elections and democracy in the context of nation building. Another participant asked, “If a government is denying the rights of the people to choose their leaders, what do you call such a government?  According to our constitution, we’re supposed to have the Local Government elections every five years. For the past 16 years, we have not had this election. Can we say that our government is a democratic government?”
Prof. Lublin responded by outlining numerous positives of holding local government elections. “If your party loses at the national level, maybe your party wins at the local level. You’re not always a winner, you’re not always a loser”, he noted.
He said that there is a Democratic President in his country but Republican- led Governors in the big states of Florida and Texas. He said the answer to that question lies in the power of the Guyanese people to “change the system, particularly, regardless of PPP or PNC. Demand more rights to do these things”.
Another participant, Political Scientist Dr Rishee Thakur of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus, mentioned key “friends” to Guyana such as the “the major international and bilateral agencies (CIDA, IMF, USAID, World Bank, etc) who, in many ways, are responsible for the management of this country right now”.
He queried if half of the projects are pulled out and “we crash at the bottom tomorrow morning”.
Additionally, Dr Thakur, noted to Prof Lublin that Guyana is the only country in the world with one radio station “controlled by the government”.
“We think that makes a considerable difference when we begin to come and adjudicate on the question of free and fair elections when we know 70 per cent of the country is not available to the private media.”
Dr Thakur also mentioned that the population of the Upper Corentyne area does not have any access to television stations in that area.
“The government consistently refuses to provide access to this community here [to TV], we don’t receive any news”.
Corentyne Community Broadcasting (CCBTV Ch 19) had stopped broadcasting a few years ago since the manager died.
The station was sold to another person who is awaiting permission from the government to transfer the license and begin operation.
He noted the opposition parties are not allowed access to the media and this affects what constitutes democracy.
When asked about the U.S Government’s method of placing government advertisements in American newspapers and the process used to place such ads, Prof Lublin said ads are usually “placed in a wide variety of papers” and that the newspapers in the U.S. are in a lot of trouble since many persons are now going to the internet for their news.
The professor said that the media in the U.S. allow “different points of view” in that they allow spokespeople from the government and the minority party.
He cited the First Amendment in that “the government has no power to censor the media” and “lots of political debates” among the presidential candidates of the USA.
Prof Lublin stated that the newspapers’ role in the USA is usually to criticise, they’re very critical of both the incumbent party and the non- incumbent party”.
He said that most papers separate the news pages from the opinion pages, for example the New York Times opinion pages favouring the Democrats and the Wall Street Journals opinion pages favouring the Republicans, but that these newspapers “in their news coverage are generally objective”.
“It is their job to dig into things and find out what’s going on and ask the tough questions.”
President of the UCCCI, Vishnu Doerga thanked the U.S. Embassy for organising the lecture and said that “It gives us a very good view of what democracy looks like in the U.S., it was also mentioned that it was not a perfect system but it’s a good model.
He added that instead of continuing to complain, the Guyanese people “have to make the decisions and come up with constructive solutions”.

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