Leonard Craig takes issue with Tony Vieira

Nov 29, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I came across a misguided piece on broadcasting in both KN and SN written by Tony Vieira. I am lost for words that Guyana’s foremost self-appointed “expert” on Broadcasting could be so ill informed with respect to modern trends in the industry. If botched enquiries can be conducted by “elegant” personalities then we can expect caricature. Vieira is said to be a “High Performing” Member of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority.
I therefore penned this response for two simple reasons; first, to caution the newspapers’ editor(s) to be more careful in the future when publishing information and opinions from impersonators and wannabes and to double check that the letters indeed originated from the real person whose name was used, and second, to correct the misconception that will be perpetuated if left unchecked. So please allow me to clarify. The writer claimed that the Broadcasting Act of 2011 and the Telecommunications Act of 2016 contain many perversions and he cites the definition (so styled) to cause “cable transmissions or wireless cable to be considered as broadcasting” as one such perversion.
The writer further opined that, the laws of Guyana “should redefine broadcasting so that it is identified as what it really is… and not include multipoint multichannel distribution system which is not transmitted to a mass media… Mr. Hugh Cholomondeley used to call it, rightly, narrow casting not broadcasting.” A quick survey of what obtains in the rest of the world should adequately inform readers so please allow me to reprint a few samples. The Broadcasting acts of Trinidad and Tobago (2001) “broadcasting service” means the offering of the transmission of programmes whether or not encrypted, by any means of telecommunications, for reception by the general public, including sound, radio, television and other types of transmissions, such as those on a point to multipoint basis; “telecommunications” includes the transmission, emission or reception of signals, writing, pulses, images, sounds or other intelligence of any kind by wire, radio, terrestrial or submarine cables, optical or electromagnetic spectrum or by way of any other technology.
South Africa (1999) says thus “broadcasting” means any form of unidirectional telecommunications intended for the public, sections of the public or subscribers to any broadcasting service having appropriate receiving facilities, whether carried by means of radio or any other means of telecommunication or any combination of the aforementioned, and “broadcast” is construed accordingly; “broadcasting signal distribution” means the process whereby the output signal of a broadcasting service is taken from the point of origin, being the point where such signal is made available in its final content format, from where it is conveyed to any broadcast target area by means of a telecommunication process and includes multi-channel distribution; United Kingdom (1996) “television or radio broadcasting” includes the provision by means other than broadcasting of services similar to those provided by television or radio broadcasts .
Australia (1992) Broadcasting Service means a service that delivers television programs or radio programns to persons having equipment appropriate for receiving that service, whether the delivery uses the radio frequency spectrum, cable, optical fibre, satellite or any other means or a combination of those means. Japan (2010) the term “broadcasting” shall mean the transmission (including those transmitted using the telecommunications equipment of other persons) of telecommunications with the aim of direct reception by the public.
Canada (1991) “broadcasting” means any transmission of programs, whether or not encrypted, by radio waves or other means of telecommunication for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus, but does not include any such transmission of programs that is made solely for performance or display in a public place; For the purposes of this Act, other means of telecommunication means any wire, cable, radio, optical or other electromagnetic system, or any similar technical system. I have provided what people on every continent of the planet accepts as the standard definition for broadcasting and in each and every case the definitions agree and are generally consistent with the one crafted for Guyana.
The early forms of cable were the Community Antenna Television (CATV), a type of cable system for communities in the USA where Traditional Terrestrial Television signals were very weak. As cable developed and grew and because it did not utilize any spectrum it was largely unregulated by the FCC. Not until 1949 when the FCC attempted to regulate it there was a capitalists’ fight back to resist regulation. A lobby was started by the Cable companies which lead to Bills being introduced in the US Congress one in 1959 and the other in 1961, both were defeated as the FCC was able to successfully testify before Congress that standard over the air broadcasting and CATV cable systems were sufficiently and properly categorized as broadcasting and should be regulated as “common carriers.”
In addition, if either of the two service types were to utilize spectrum for transmission they were to be further regulated for spectrum usage. The Cable operators having failed in congress took the matter to the US Supreme Court whose judgment stated; “the Commission’s authority over ‘all interstate … communications by wire or radio ‘permits the regulation of CATV systems.” That judgment and the practice and the evolution and interaction of Cable with traditional TV had more or less set the baseline for broadcasting the world over. The writer of that letter to the editor is asking the entire nation to jump with him into his time machine and zip back to the 1950s and resurrect a case that was fought and settled and accepted across the globe.
Leonard Craig

Editor’s Note: Mr. Craig’s missive is a voluminous one and we will have to continue it in another edition

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