Protests over radio licences taken to Channel 9

Mar 27, 2013 News

– media houses vow to continue action

Private media houses continued their protests over what they say is the unfair distribution of radio licences by former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Yesterday, scores of media workers, newspaper vendors and journalists took the protests to NBTV Channel 9, on Mandela Avenue, in the city. They bore placards calling for a level-playing field and demanding that the ruling party stop its practice of “grabbing” Guyana for its friends and close party members.

Protestors in front of the NBTV Channel Nine studios yesterday.

The media houses affected are claiming that they were deliberately ignored by former President Bharrat Jagdeo who used his executive power days before stepping down in late 2011, to grant close party members and family radio licences and other frequencies to operate cable TV and internet.
NBTV is one of the several longstanding TV stations ignored.
At the end of day, the radio frequencies essentially allow the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), through the radio licences, to control the airwaves across the country.
With government already granting a number of duty free and other concessions to the companies that have been given radio licences, the affected media houses which included NBTV, Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, RBS Channel 13, CNS Channel 6, MBC Channel 46, WRHM Channel 7, GWTV 2 and Capitol News, are complaining that the intention is to eventually close them down. They have been critical of government on a number of projects in which details were questionable.
But President Donald Ramotar has insisted that Jagdeo did nothing wrong in granting the licences.
Rather, the granting of the licences was in keeping with a commitment made by the administration that the radio monopoly by the State would be broken.
Neither Ramotar nor Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon, however, could explain what criteria Jagdeo used to grant the licences, in the process sidelining others who have been in the media business for years.
Already, the media houses have protested for a number of days on Saffon Street, Charlestown, in front of Kaieteur News, home of the largest selling daily newspaper in Guyana.
Yesterday, Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, who joined the picketing exercise at NBTV, reiterated that the action would continue.
“I still want to ask Dr. Luncheon what media experience Omkar Lochan and ‘Bobby’ Ramroop have that made them get five channels each??
Lochan is the Deputy Permanent Secretary of Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud, who is closely affiliated with MTV Channel 65, another channel controlled by the ruling party.
There are now questions whether he could as an official in that Ministry be allowed a licence. He was granted five frequencies.
Ramroop is a very close friend of the former President. A number of tax concessions for his media outfit, including the Guyana Times and TVG 28, which was also acquired under unclear circumstances, are also about to be investigated by Members of Parliament. He was also given five frequencies for his radio station.
Also granted five frequencies was the ruling party’s newspaper, The Mirror. It also received five frequencies through Dharamkumar Seeraj, a Member of Parliament for the ruling party.
According to Lall, Dr. Luncheon’s explanation that the number of frequencies to close party members and friends had to do with geographical consideration is even more strange.
“To hear this is a determining factor is laughable. The doctor also said that Jagdeo used his discretion in granting the licences. Yes, I agree with Dr. Luncheon, that Jagdeo used his discretion. The only thing is that he used his discretion for was to give only his family, best friends and his party the licences.”
Lall said that to make it appear balanced, licences were granted to a few “outsiders” who each got one frequency.
“In essence, these licences are village radios that have limited coverage. What they have given themselves is countrywide radio…that is the difference. Until President Ramotar corrects this injustice that Jagdeo perpetrated on this land, we will never stop this fight. It will go on and on.”
Also there at NBTV was representative Charles Griffith and Capitol News principal, Enrico Woolford, who said that the matter is now engaging the attention of lawyers and that a court case is likely.
Griffith said that he is convinced that Jagdeo broke the law when he granted the licences.
“We will continue to protest. This is not about radio licences alone. It is about our rights which have been stolen.”
Also granted frequencies to transmit Cable TV via the airwaves are Vishok Persaud, son of former Agri Minister, Dr. Reepu Daman Persaud, and Brian Yong, a close friend of Jagdeo and former candidate in the 2011 elections for the PPP/C.
Radio and TV licences had been placed on a hold for years after government and the opposition agreed that new legislation would be tabled and a special body, the Broadcast Authority, should be established first.
However, two months after signing the Broadcast Act in September 2011, Jagdeo went ahead and issued the licences. It was not until August last year that the Broadcast Authority was appointed and even then, it was lined with government MPs, and other party officials.
Details were not available until the opposition, using their one-seat majority, forced government to divulge the information as to who was granted the licences.
The granting of licences has been roundly condemned by media associations.