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Oct 11, 2019 News
Freedom Radio, a radio station controlled by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has been fined $75,000 by the Guyana National Broadcast Authority (GNBA) for referring to President David Granger as a ‘charlatan’.
Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, said this to members of the media yesterday, during the weekly press conference at his Church Street office.
A charlatan is someone who is maliciously pretentious or deceptive. Jagdeo has, time and time again, attempted to portray the President as having bad character. He has said during several press conferences that the public must not separate the President from wrongs committed by officials in his Government; that he should be held accountable for them.
He explained that the ‘charlatan’ comment was made during a discussion about whether the Government intends to rig the election.
“They want to police what we say on Freedom Radio,” Jagdeo said. “And that’s not the most egregious thing that we could call him.”
The Opposition Leader indicated that he intends to mount a challenge to the fine. He also said that this fine may look isolated, but that it is an indication of a wider problem. Jagdeo said that GNBA has been operating as an APNU+AFC group and that, in doing so, it has been attempting to muzzle free speech.
Representatives of Freedom Radio and Multi Technology Vision (MTV) have already moved to the Court to challenge the legality of the GNBA board.
According to the application, the validity of the board, which was appointed by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo for a term of two years, expired on January 31, last.
The application also listed several other reasons, including that the Board failed to publish any rules in the media and elsewhere, as is required by the Broadcast Act.
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