NCN producer suspended

Apr 05, 2014 News

…after Cathy Hughes clip mistakenly aired

One day after being suspended for an aired “unauthorised” clip of the 2014 National Budget debate, a producer of the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN) has been asked to return to his job.

Kwame McCoy

The issue has again raised criticisms of the level of political interventions at the entity which controls a countrywide network of television and radio stations.
According to NCN officials, Trevor Persaud received a letter of suspension from the Human Resources Department on Thursday. The letter reportedly indicated that an investigation was underway for a broadcast that was prematurely cut.
However, angry NCN staffers said that the real reason for the suspension was because of anger by a senior official of the Office of the President (OP) who allegedly questioned how a presentation made by Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament, Cathy Hughes, somehow ended up being aired.
Hughes’ presentation was aired for three minutes after that of Health Minister, Bheri Ramsaran, who also spoke Wednesday.
Kaieteur News was told that presentations from Opposition MPs are only supposed to be aired late in the night.
Persaud’s suspension was reportedly triggered by OP’s Press Liaison Officer, Kwame McCoy.
However, the producer was reportedly working on the nightly Lotto programme and was not around at the time of the airing. He was asked to give a statement on the incident and was subsequently suspended on Thursday. Yesterday he was told to return to his normal duties today.
There have been concerns over the running of NCN in recent years.
The combined Opposition has been complaining of biased coverage and little opportunities of airtime.
For two consecutive years, the Opposition cut the Budget to NCN and the Government Information Agency (GINA).
This year again, NCN and GINA are set to receive $81M and $139M respectively in subventions but these may face the axe again, placing the Government and Opposition sides in the National Assembly more at odds with each other.
Recently, McCoy’s alleged role in ordering a fake poll story to be carried in the Guyana Chronicle also raised the hackles of senior officials at OP. That fake poll placed President Donald Ramotar in second place behind his predecessor, Bharrat Jagdeo, and was initially carried by a Government-aligned newspaper, Guyana Times. How that story ended up in the Guyana Chronicle the next day reportedly resulted in an acting editor being removed.
No action was reportedly taken against McCoy, himself no stranger to controversy.
However, NCN’s Chief Executive Officer (Ag), Michael Gordon, has been ordered transferred to head the Guyana Chronicle. Yesterday was his last day at NCN.
NCN itself was mired in a major scandal two years ago after one senior official allegedly placed almost $4M of the entity’s monies into his personal bank account.
Martin Goolsarran, the Programme Manager, was suspended and his Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed “Fuzzy” Sattaur resigned.
The Administration has refused to release a report on NCN ordered by its Board of Directors and which reportedly found irregularities. The report has been sitting on the President’s desk since 2012.
Sitting on NCN’s Board is Kwame McCoy.