Vieira takes “abusive, obstructionist” approach to membership of GNBA - Chairman

Vieira takes “abusive, obstructionist” approach to membership of GNBA – Chairman

Sep 23, 2016 News

Chairman of the Board of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA), Leonard Craig, has sought to clear his name as one of the members contributing to discord and non-productivity that currently characterizes the Board.

GNBA Board Member, Anthony Vieira

He said that while there is indeed discord on the Board, he has not contributed to it in any way.
There have been several reports that Craig and Anthony Vieira find it hard to see eye to eye and often, cannot agree on anything at the Board level. The reports were that Anthony Vieira thinks that Craig is incompetent and should not be Chairman of the Board.
Craig dispatched a press release in which he stated, “Despite his (Vieira’s) abusive and obstructionist approach to my tenure as Chairman of the GNBA, I have displayed extreme restraint and immeasurable patience.”
Further, Craig said that he has “continually pledged to work with him and all other members of the Board to achieve the best objectives and ensure Public Interest is served.” But Vieira continues to act irresponsibly and “abusive.”
Kaieteur News has reported that the discord on the Board has led to the delay of important work. In fact, GNBA is rated the least productive among the state Boards. But Craig tends to partially disagree.
The Chairman said, “On the question of the slothfulness of the Board I wish to admit that our work is not as advanced as I had envisaged it should have been at this juncture.”
He said, however, that this is attributable to the fact that when the new Board was installed, “the Authority was a far cry from what a regulator of this nature should be. As much as there was a regulator in place the Broadcasting landscape remained largely unregulated. Weak administrative and compliance structures existed. As such, through its various committees we set out to build an Authority literally from scratch.”

GNBA Chairman, Leonard Craig

Craig said that the Board has since developed rules of procedures for the operation and functioning of the Board; commissioned a Website (located at www.gnba.gov.gy) and established social media presence and drafted guidelines which include a code of practice for the Monitoring of Broadcasting.
The Chairman also boasted that the Board has conducted a limited Broadcasting Survey to be apprised of the realities of the sector which will help to shape policies.
Craig further stated that the Board has drafted new regulations for the management of the Broadcasting landscape including the establishment of zones and new and more manageable fee structures and review; established new financial structures and procurement policies; adopted program rating regime to ensure that broadcasting in Guyana falls in line with internationally accepted moral practice and drafted guidelines for the evaluation of new applications.
Craig said, “All of these are necessary and unavoidable forerunners to the development of a well-managed, transparent and level broadcasting landscape.”
However, critical works remain outstanding. Broadcasting fees remain high even though the Board has promised to reduce it; there has been no implemention of regulations to guarantee local content on television and radio stations; zoning still has to be applied and, among other things, the illegal radio licences granted by former President Bharrat Jagdeo continue to stand.