Jagdeo refused to remove PNCR rep from Broadcast Committee – Corbin

Oct 07, 2011 News

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Pull Quote: “This body, which was intended to be advisory and to work for the development of self-regulation of the private-owned media, has assumed the posture of a legal authority with powers to direct punitive action against certain privately owned media in Guyana”- Robert Corbin

Having taken a back seat recently to allow for his party to be engaged in the campaign with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Robert Corbin, was yesterday critical of President Bharrat Jagdeo for what he described as a spurious statements.

Corbin was also critical of the President’s failure to address a serious anomaly, namely with the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB).
The ACB is the body whose recommendation President Bharrat Jagdeo said he was acting on when he suspended CNS TV 6 for four months this week.
Corbin, during a special press briefing yesterday to address the matter, told media operatives that he had on several occasions pointed out that the credibility and legality of the ACB as constituted was questionable.
“During the well publicised constructive engagement in 2003 between President Jagdeo and me, we agreed that the then ACB should have been reconstituted. Consequently, acting in good faith of our agreements, I notified President Jagdeo, by letter dated 16th October 2003 of my intention to replace the nominee of the Leader of the Opposition with immediate effect.”
Corbin was referring to the appointment of Ronald Case who was appointed to the Committee upon nomination by the former leader of the Opposition and late President Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
In that letter to the President, Corbin stated, “it was agreed that the ACB should be reconstituted. It was never expected that such a temporary body would have been in existence for such a long period of time.”
Corbin in the letter also stated “I wish, therefore, to formally notify you of my intention to replace the nominee of the Leader of the Opposition, with immediate effect, and state formally that I have no confidence in the manner in which the ACB has been discharging its mandate.”
He had also at that time suggested that the operations of the ACB be suspended “until the matters are properly clarified and the body fully reconstituted”.
President Jagdeo, during a recent press briefing, told the media that he was merely acting on the recommendation of the ACB. He repeatedly emphasized that the opposition nominee was a party to it.
Corbin in the letter to Case at the time when he had also informed the President of the withdrawal stated inter alia, “I have made no secret of the fact that I have been very dissatisfied with the manner in which the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting  (ACB) has been discharging its mandate.”
He had in the missive stated, “This body, which was intended to be advisory and to work for the development of self-regulation of the private-owned media, has assumed the posture of a legal authority with powers to direct punitive action against certain privately-owned media in Guyana. This could never have been the intention or expectation of my predecessor, the late Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte
“The public perception, with which I concur, is that the ACB is on a crusade to silence any private media which dares to publish views that may be unacceptable to the government. Consequently, the body has been unable to generate public confidence in the discharge of its functions.”
Corbin also told media operatives that the President and the then Minister responsible for the administration of the Postal and Telegraph Act, Samuel Hinds, adamantly refused to honour his notification and sought to justify their retention of Case.
The Opposition Leader stated that it is significant that President Jagdeo, who refused to act upon his notification then, proceeded to name a new Chairman of the ACB, (Evan Persaud replaced Pat Dyal), and to appoint a new nominee of the Private Sector Commission, (Norman McLean replaced Carlton James), without giving the Leader of the Opposition an opportunity to name a new nominee or even notify him of the changes.
“This matter has been in the public domain for years, yet President Jagdeo did not have the decency to address this serious anomaly,” Corbin charged.
He asserted that Ronald Case could not be under any illusion that he was representing the Leader of the Opposition and that he was a nominee of the Leader of the Opposition on the ACB.
“On the same day I notified President Jagdeo of my intention to replace him, I wrote Mr. Case directly, thanking him for his services and notified him of my intention to replace him as my nominee with effect from the end of October 2003.”
Corbin also charged that instead of doing the decent thing and resign, as was to be expected, Case “colluded with the Jagdeo administration to retain that lucrative position and it was obvious to him that, thereafter, he was representing President Jagdeo and not the Leader of the Opposition.”
Corbin also pointed out that subsequent to noting the continuous abuse of their Authority, he filed a Writ in the High Court on May 31, 2011 seeking several declarations including, “a declaration that Mr. Case was not a nominee of the Leader of the Opposition on the ACB; a declaration that the ACB is not a duly constituted body under the Postal and Telegraph Act; and, an Order declaring all acts, decisions and/or recommendations purportedly done and/or made by the ACB to be null, void and of no legal effect.”
Corbin said that on the same day he filed the Writ he received a copy of a letter, dated the previous day (30th May 2011) from Case and addressed to Jagdeo, resigning from membership to the ACB.
The PNCR leader pointed out that it is significant that in his letter to Jagdeo, that Case stated that he had been incapacitated for the previous 26 months due to a stroke and had been unable to function.
“President Jagdeo was, therefore, being more than disingenuous when he informed the media, at his recent Press Briefing that he was acting on recommendations of this discredited ACB and, moreover, that this purported ACB comprised a nominee of the Leader of the Opposition.”
Corbin yesterday also used the opportunity to place on record his stance that President Jagdeo cannot be oblivious to the implications of silencing CNS TV Channel 6 and the obvious perception that it is directly related to the upcoming General Elections and the silencing of non Government political parties.
“It is, however, irrelevant what President Jagdeo thinks…The fact is that the closure of Channel 6 at this time, for any reason, is directly affecting the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections in Guyana…GECOM, therefore, has the responsibility of taking necessary action, including meeting with President Jagdeo to ensure that the suspension is speedily lifted to guarantee the credibility of the elections and acceptance of the results.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Office of the President Statement

–    In Response to Mr. Robert Corbin, Leader of the PNC/R party in the October 6, 2011 edition of the Kaieteur News

Mr. Corbin has surfaced and has made quite passionate criticisms of the president, accusing him of lying and providing misinformation to the Guyanese public. The facts surrounding his claim are as follows:
Since 2003, Mr. Corbin has sought to get President (Bharrat) Jagdeo to remove from office the appointments of the then leader of the Opposition Mr.. Desmond Hoyte from the constitutional commission GECOM and the statutory committee, the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB).
Mr. Corbin indicated that he had lost confidence and wanted to replace the commissioners and the committee members’ appointed by Mr. Hoyte.  President Jagdeo after being provided with legal advice rejected Mr. Corbin’s advancement; that was since 2003.
It is clear today that based on his outburst that Mr. Corbin has his own bleak intentions and was seizing the opportunities that were available in the wake of the suspension of the licence of CNS Channel 6.
The licencees of CNS Channel 6 clearly infringed their licence, the laws and Constitution of Guyana. They admitted to the infringement and offered public apology so the protests that called for mercy had some basis but Mr. Corbin’s attacks were based on questioning the legitimacy and the constitutionality of the ACB, had its roots in the insistent request he had made since 2003 to have the Hoyte appointments, Mr. Case as in the case of the ACB and Mr.Alexander in the case of GECOM unilaterally and without cause removed from these two bodies.
Those are the facts of the matter.
Mr. Sharma sought legal interventions and the fact that the court did not support the injunction that was originally granted to Mr. Sharma preventing the ACB from functioning was clear evidence that the constitutionality of the ACB was respected by Mr. Sharma, his lawyers and definitely by the Office of the President,  thus his contentions that the president lied, misinformed and withheld information from the general public should be treated with the scorn that it deserves and indeed  it should invite questions about Mr. Corbin’s sincerity in addressing the issue at the bilateral level between the Opposition and the Government of Guyana .

Dr. Roger Luncheon

Head of the Presidential Secretariat

October 6, 2011

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