Of Broadcasts and Broadsides

Jul 31, 2011 Editorial

After being touted as vitally necessary for our nascent democracy for over two decades, a Broadcasting Bill was finally passed in the National Assembly last Thursday. Controlled by fiat during the Burnhamite regime, the broadcasting field became a veritable wild west with the relaxation of controls initiated after 1985 by President Hoyte.
Disagreement on the fine print among the political fraternity, however, kept drafts of the Bill floating and sinking in the Assembly and its committees. Until Thursday.
But even this denoument was not without its drama. The PNCR walked out of the session and announced that they could not support the bill because they were not “consulted” appropriately. Mr Corbin, leader of the PNCR, alluded to alleged prior agreements reached between President Jagdeo and Mr Hoyte and himself that stipulated such consultation. The government, for their part, denied there were any such side agreements.
This newspaper can understand the PNCR’s walk out as a gesture of frustration but wonders whether the national (and its constituency’s) interest would not have been better served if it had participated in the debate and articulated its specific concerns.
The AFC, which had tabled a bill on the subject back in 2008, noted that it was supporting the legislation because it was practically identical to its submission and, more to the point, to the one a parliamentary committee with both PPP and PNC membership had drafted in 2000. This is another reason why it would have been useful for the PNC to make its specific objections known, lest it be seen by the public as petty cavilling, or worse, playing to the gallery.
As the government noted, the Broadcasting Bill will make provision for the establishment of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority. “The Authority will be responsible for the regulation, supervision and development of the National Broadcasting System which will provide for the licensing of broadcasting agencies and encouraging production and broadcasting of television and radio programmes.”
One concern articulated, and which we share, is that the Authority will be appointed almost in its entirety by the President. The only limitation is that: “One of the members of the Board shall be nominated by the Leader of the Opposition for appointment after he has had meaningful consultation with the parliamentary opposition parties.”
In addressing this concern, Ms Gail Teixeira on behalf of the government claimed that whether the President appoints the members of the Authority or the power is delegated to one of his Ministers, the point is moot since, “a Minister is a creature of the President.”
We find the phraseology of Ms Teixiera not only flippant in its tone but quite revealing in its import. Guyanese would remember well the outcry from the PPP when Mr Hoyte once referred to the General Secretary of his party as his “creature”.
The objection then remains valid now: not because one in high office appoints an individual to a subordinate office does the latter become his “creature” – implying that the individual becomes a mindless automaton, simply doing the bidding of the appointer.
In fact, Ms Teixeira’s phraseology gives support to the concerns raised in the first place: if a Minister that sits in Cabinet as a colleague and runs a whole sector of the government’s remit is expected to be a “creature” of the President, what can we believe the expectations for a mere member of the Broadcast Authority to be?
While the Bill will finally end the government’s monopoly on radio broadcasting, stipulations in the Bill will give it the authority to consider whether an applicant for a radio or TV license “has had a license suspended or cancelled in the past and reasons for it”; “whether the applicant is already in possession of a licence” or “whether the applicant has had a previous application rejected and the reasons for it.”
Those broadcasters, such as CNS6 and HBTV9, that ran afoul of the interim regulations in the past may through this requirement now be barred. We will revisit this very important piece of legislation, passed on the eve of Emancipation Day 2011.

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