Guyana sailing in Jagdeo's dictatorship

President Bharrat Jagdeo last night ordered CNS Channel Six off the air for four months from midnight over an on-air licence infringement committed in February, a move that Sharma referred to as dictatorial, and one that sparked outrage on the television station last night.

In a letter addressed to Sharma and dispatched a few hours after a meeting at his office to determine what would happen to the station’s licence, Jagdeo said he found Sharma’s explanations unsatisfactory as to why the offending broadcasts continued to air on CNS Channel 6, even after Sharma recognised that the content of the programme infringed the conditions of his licence. Later in a press release the Office of the President (OP) said Sharma was found to have committed serious infringements of the conditions of the licence by broadcasting on four occasions, including three rebroadcasts, content that advocated the killing of the Head of State and Head of Government.

The OP release said Jagdeo is the sole authority vested with power to decide whether a licensee has breached the terms and conditions of their licence and/or the provisions of the Act or the regulations and whether any sanctions may be imposed, adding that the Act provides that the Minister may suspend or cancel the Licence for such breaches.

Further, it stated that Sharma sought to prevent the hearing of the infringement matter by moving to court and that in his capacity as Minister of Information, Jagdeo heard Sharma on the charges and allowed a full opportunity to the station owner yesterday to show cause why his licence should not be cancelled or suspended. According to the statement, Sharma acknowledged at the hearing that the broadcasts infringed the conditions of the licence and the law.

“Under no circumstances can the Minister allow a Licensee to use the airwaves, without sanction, to advocate the killing of any citizen, moreso a Head of State and Government”, the release added.But last night Sharma said the move to close him down was, “a sad one that will hurt the people working here”. He said the campaign against him has deepened and has now reached the point where the people around him will suffer as a result, adding that government is taking bread out of the mouths of some 35 persons in his employ, mostly women among whom are many single-parent mothers.

Within minutes of receiving the letter Sharma went on air last night to inform the public and to speak out against the move. He was supported by several political leaders and members of the local media fraternity. Sharma used the opportunity to call on the public to stand by him and to reject the President’s decision resulting in supporting calls when he opened the phone lines.

Sharma said government cannot expect him to find salaries for his staff for four months when he is doing no business. According to him a significant amount of revenue will be lost during that period - in the millions he estimated. Since he feels a court challenge will be too exhausting Sharma said he and his affected staff will take to the streets in protest and will continue until the President realizes his mistake.

“They want me to run, pack up and go away but it ain’t happening today or tomorrow. I will fight this and the people of Guyana will fight this because it has been going on for too long”, the station owner said.Attorney-at-law Khemraj Ramjattan, who was part of Sharma’s legal team, said last night that the President has no authority to suspend Sharma’s licence. He said the decision was “nonsensical and an … abuse of state power”. He said the President and his administration continue to trample upon one of the pillars of democracy - freedom of expression.

Ramjattan said Sharma’s only perceived threat against the President lies in the power of his station, which he said, is the best in the country and the only one that people call into to state their problems. He said shutting Sharma down is in essence shutting down the views of the public.

According to him the legal team that went to meet the President at his request yesterday at the Office of the President advanced arguments that were satisfactory. He said they raised many key issues but mainly argued that the President had no authority to pass judgment in the case because he was a central figure in it.“We basically argued that he cannot be judge, jury and executor in a case that involves him. It is a sound fact yet this is what he is now doing”, Ramjattan said.

He said that Sharma has a few options open to him but noted that they are focused on the moment with getting a speedy resolution to the problem. Ramjattan said he has drafted letters to the United Nations and the Organisation of American States that he will soon be dispatched to draw international attention to the issue since according to him the President and his government must be exposed for the undemocratic position it has taken against Sharma.

He maintained that Sharma made his case to the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) and that an apology was accepted yet the President felt it necessary to persist with the matter. The lawyer said there is an agenda and that Sharma is being targeted.

Finding foodSharma told Stabroek News last night that his staff on hearing the news questioned how they will get by for the next four months. One of the staffers told this newspaper that he has bills and that the decision gave him an instant headache.

The station owner said the cost of living in the country is high and that food items are on the increase yet the President has decided that his staff must now find food however they must. He said that in addition to his staff there are many other persons who live on the streets that would drop by at nights or during the day for a few dollars or a meal and they are always assisted.

“Look how many people got it hard and now over 30 more people will get it hard because of this President. He wants people to go and beg but we will go on the street and protest this”, he added.

Sharma said government could have asked him to issue a public apology or even let him off with a warning. He said a suspension for four months is punishment meant to cripple business and hurt his staff. He said that Jagdeo could have simply said that what happened should not have and that he needs to be more careful in the future. He said that since the incident and the letter from the ACB alerting him of the infringement he has been more careful. Additionally, he said that when the caller made the statements about the President on air he immediately chastised her but this has all been ignored he added.

Condemnation

The Guyana Press Association (GPA) in a statement issued last night said it regretted and unequivocally condemned the decision by the President, in his capacity as Minister of Information, to suspend the licence of CNS TV 6 for four months.

Due process has been violated and sacrificed at the altar of political expediency and self-interest, rather than opting for an enlightened and transparent approach, the GPA said, adding that while it shall never ever support the use of the media for incitement of criminal acts and hatred based on race, religion, culture or association; it will also not sit idly by and allow Presidential executive authority and immunity from litigation to be wielded as an iron fist on the media.

The association said it will not debate the utterance by a caller on the Voice of the People programme that led to the suspension of the license but that it firmly believes that President Jagdeo should have recused himself from hearing and determining the matter because he is the aggrieved party, the threat having been made against him.

“To the best of our knowledge, the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) never recommended to Mr Jagdeo that CNS TV 6’s license be suspended or cancelled because of the broadcast of the offending remarks. Hence, the President has usurped the authority of the ACB which is regarded as the precursor to a Broadcast Authority whenever the long-delayed broadcast bill is tabled in the National Assembly and approved”, GPA stated.

The GPA called on the President to immediately withdraw the suspension because he has no locus standi in the matter as it was not referred to him by the ACB with an advisory. Additionally the GPA said the suspension of CNS TV6’s licence is an opportune moment for media houses to consider the establishment of a self-regulatory Media Complaints Committee that applies a Code of Conduct for all print and electronic media.

“Left alone, as it is today, Broadcast Legislation can be enacted with the proviso that the final authority rests with the Minister of Information who, in this case, is the President, thus opening the door for arbitrary and abusive actions that cannot be challenged in a Court of Law”, the GPA added.

Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud last evening condemned President Jagdeo’s decision. Persaud said the President’s decision was indefensible since the mandate for addressing transgressions of the station’s licence lay with the ACB which has accepted Sharma’s explanations and had not recommended any disciplinary action. The suspension for four months, Persaud said, amounted to a horrendous press freedom assault.

Persaud said Stabroek News was acutely aware of the administration’s callous attitude towards press freedom as the newspaper had been a victim of this for 17 months via the arbitrary and insupportable cut-off of state advertising with the newspaper. While SN lost a large amount of revenue since November 2006 it could not be compared to the shutting down of Channel Six for four months. That, he said, was tantamount to putting the station out of business.

Persaud said the superseding of the ACB in this matter made a mockery of President Jagdeo’s own agreement with the late PNC Leader Desmond Hoyte for the review of licence breaches to be reposed in the authority. Persaud further added that responsibility for the chaotic state of the broadcast sector had be laid squarely at the feet of the PPP/C administration as it had made no effort to proceed with comprehensive legislation for a broadcast authority that had been promised for many years.

Persaud said he hoped that President would immediately withdraw the ban as it once again placed Guyana in the category of press freedom offenders and was an ominous sign at a time that the country needed to pull together to combat the crime threat.

On Thursday, the Working People’s Alliance warned that there was a “real and present danger” of another attack on press freedom by the government. Referring to the government’s summoning of Sharma to a meeting at the Office of the President, the WPA said that it believes that any bid to curtail the operations of Channel Six must be seen as “another blatant attempt by the government to trample on the fundamental rights of Guyanese. We call on all Guyanese to close ranks behind Sharma to resist this latest violation. Yesterday it was Buxton, torture and Stabroek News, today it is Sharma’s CNS TV 6. Whose turn will it be tomorrow?”

The WPA noted that the ACB is the body lawfully constituted to oversee the television media and had accepted Sharma’s explanations on the transgressions and had not ordered any disciplinary action. The WPA noted that Sharma had made air time available to the parliamentary political parties. “These developments have not gone unnoticed and unchallenged by the PPP/C and its supporters and in the process Sharma has been the subject of numerous abuses, threats and actual physical assaults”.

In a statement on Thursday, the PNCR expressed alarm at what it said appeared as a concerted effort to shut down Channel Six. The party said it readily understood that given the live nature of Voice of the People there may be instances of the use of intemperate language. “When there are such occurrences, these can be dealt with by sensible programme management precautions to ensure conformity with acceptable broadcasting standards”.

The party added it does not condone the employment of strong-arm tactics which seem motivated by self-serving partisan political considerations. “The party wishes to warn the Jagdeo PPP/C administration that any attempt to close down CNS TV Channel 6 will… retard the building of a democratic culture in Guyana and generate unwelcome tensions in this society, at a time when there is need for calm and peace”.