Int’l press freedom body wants complete lifting of Sharma ban

Oct 18, 2011 News

International press freedom body, Reporters Without Borders, has noted the postponement of the CNS TV 6 ban, but believes the ban should be lifted altogether.
“Far from defusing the controversy, President Jagdeo and his adviser, Gail Teixeira, have tried to justify the suspension by likening CNS Channel Six to Radio Mille Collines, the Rwandan radio station that openly encouraged the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994, a comparison that is morally outrageous and intellectually dishonest,” the France-based organisation stated.
The Guyana Press Association (GPA) had earlier denounced what it said was the outlandish statement by the current Guyana

CN Sharma, owner of Channel Six

Government that it “intends to take steps to alert the United Nations on the threat that is being posed to peaceful elections by certain media houses and their operatives and call for an independent investigation.”
The GPA said that it was barefaced shamefulness for the Guyana government to make a link or comparison or to have even alluded to the Rwanda situation.
“The allusion to a real genocide is highly immoral and reprehensible and the GPA finds it repugnant.”
CNS TV 6 was suspended for four months, beginning October 3, but the President announced a two-month delay after public protests by opposition parties and rights groups that the move was time to coincide with elections, which would be held on November 28.
“So CNS Channel Six’s suspension will begin after the elections, which will allow it to cover the election campaign normally,” Reporters Without Borders said. “But the postponement does not resolve the core problem. This is an act of censorship that was decided personally by the president in reprisal for an interviewee’s comment on the air last May.
CNS TV was suspended owing to a commentary by former Parliamentarian Anthony Vieira that was aired on the station on May 4.
“Parliamentarian Tony Vieira’s offending comment about Bishop Juan Edghill did not incite hatred or violence against one of Guyana’s communities.
“It was just a criticism of Bishop Edghill’s performance as chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission. There are no acceptable grounds for censoring CNS Channel Six. This measure must be lifted,” Reporters Without Borders stated.
The organisation had condemned President Jagdeo’s order suspending broadcasting by CNS Channel Six.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News