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NCN gives Coalition Govt. 1 hour coverage, PPP gets 1 minute
…Launching of campaign season
State-owned television and radio broadcasting corporation, the National Communications Network (NCN), has come under heavy criticism after there was a significant time difference in the Facebook live streams between the two major parties’ campaign launches.
NCN live streamed more than an hour of the Coalition’s campaign launch, which took place on Friday at D’Urban Park. However, on Sunday when the People’s Progressive Party/ Civics’ (PPP/C) launched its campaign, NCN only awarded a measly minute and a half of their Facebook live stream.
The NCN, and by extension the Government, left much to be pondered regarding the use of state-owned media. When the current Government was in the opposition prior to 2015, it relentlessly advocated for fair and balanced news coverage of their events.
Kaieteur News reached out to the Chairman of NCN, Enrico Woolford, and he defended why the Coalition was awarded more coverage.
He argued that NCN is broadcasting and not a telecommunications agency. As such, he said it is only responsible for its frequencies, those being 100.1 Fresh FM, 102.5 (Voice of Guyana), 98.1Hot FM, and on television, Channel 11—and not telecommunication platform like a Facebook live stream.
Woodford referenced the Broadcasting Act of Guyana where he explained that, “broadcasting means the transmission of any programme whether or not encrypted and whether or not actually received, by wire or wireless medium or technology for reception by all or part of the general public, but does not include telecommunications.”
“I am concerned with whether NCN covers broadcasts of events of a newsworthy nature and not the live streaming… As far as I am concerned, the live stream does not fall under the Broadcasting Act, but instead the Telecommunications Act.
“A telecommunication service is different from that of a broadcasting service and NCN only offers a broadcasting service,” he argued.
“As long as we have content that is clear, that is balanced, that is objective and if the Board of NCN has indicated the same thing, then that information shall be carried on the frequencies that have been allocated by NCN by the broadcasting agency so that all of Guyana and the rest of the world can get it,” he said.
Woolford was keen to note that Parliament has dissolved so extra consideration has to be given to anyone deriving itself from the parliament, such as the political opposition.
“One has to consider whether it is still as newsworthy as it ought to be, because they derive their power from there,” he added.
President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Nazima Ragubhir, stated that the issue of coverage by state media during this campaigning season has not yet been discussed by the association.
However, she added that access to state media for coverage is something that ought to be discussed by key persons who are involved.
“What is happening now is the same thing that happened when the current government was in the opposition. Clearly, this shouldn’t happen again …
“The Guyana Broadcasting Authority should provide some amount of information on state media covering all political parties; it’s not just about the major political parties.”
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