High Court motion to be filed tomorrow
In the hours since he has been ordered off the air by President Bharrat Jagdeo, CN Sharma said public support and the loyalty of his staff have strengthened his resolve to fight the decision and he is prepared for a battle in the local courts.
Calmly but deeply troubled, he left the air at midnight on Friday but not after breaking down tearfully for a short while. Sharma said that at that exact moment he felt as though his life had been snatched by the powers that be and what had not happened to him in 16 years happened in a few hours — he was told to end transmission for four months. He is planning a peaceful march tomorrow.
With two legal matters pending, one for nearly three years, Sharma said, he was sceptical about legal redress, but on the advice of his lawyers was moving tomorrow to the High Court to have Jagdeo’s decision quashed.
Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes, who is on Sharma’s legal team, and had advanced the arguments at the meeting on Friday last with Jagdeo, said yesterday that the judiciary has in the past demonstrated it does not have the capacity to hear politically-challenged matters expeditiously. He pointed to two past matters Sharma has before the court — judgment pending in one case and the hearing stalled in the next.But the move to the court was crucial Hughes said, since, according to him, the President has acted ultra vires and had no authority to close Sharma down. He said Jagdeo, being the subject of complaint, was in no position to sit in the matter.
Further, Hughes said, the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) made no recommendation under the Postal and Telegraph Act for Sharma’s licence to be suspended or cancelled, which he said means that Jagdeo therefore had no power to take such a decision. He added that the ACB was the only authority to hear infringements and make a decision with respect to licences. Contacted yesterday, Chairman of the ACB, Pat Dial, would only say that it was not the policy of the committee to comment on matters publicly.
The first business blow since he ended transmission at midnight on Friday came yesterday when Sharma opened the doors to his station to begin a massive refund of money to advertisers and others. Significant among these were monies paid up for death announcements.
Even as customers retrieved their funds and spoke of taking business elsewhere, many openly condemned the President’s decision and promised to “return when Sharma is back in business”. Several later assembled at the Robb Street office to join him on the streets in a peaceful march but the weather stalled the plans.
Sharma told Stabroek News that he was now of the opinion that the President and his administration have been planning to move against him in such a manner for some time now. He said the move was clearly intended to destabilize him financially.
“Jagdeo must think I am running a cake shop here. This is not a cake shop, it is a television station with millions tied up in it and by closing me down for four months, he is trying to close me out,” Sharma stated.
The caller
He said the woman who telephoned his station and made the explosive comments about the President has not called since to say anything, which he said was beginning to arouse suspicion. Accord-ing to Sharma, the show has a faithful following of mostly women and they usually call him to offer support on and off air. He said it was strange that she has not come forward since.
Sharma also believes that government was not too pleased with his decision to allow regular airtime to opposition leaders. He said the PNCR and the AFC have been allotted time on his station to ventilate their political views and have been doing so much to the disapproval of many in government quarters. However, he said, the government has been offered time and has been invited to appear many times but repeatedly declined.
According to Sharma, opposition leaders, particularly Robert Corbin, need to speak out and support him at this time. He said the business community also needs to come out in support of him at this because what government was trying to do was take away his freedom of expression.
The station owner said many persons have called on him to fight back and to disobey the President’s orders but he has decided against anything such thing. He said he would not fight fire with fire since he wanted only peace.
“Peace is what I want, not chaos and bloodshed and all those things. People could get hurt and I don’t want that,” he added.
He said his staff, though they would suffer, have pledged support until the suspension is over even if there is no guarantee of a salary. The business that is being lost while he is off the air was also on his mind yesterday.
Reactions by political leaders
Opposition Leader Robert Corbin who returned to Guyana yesterday telephoned Sharma on Friday during his on-air programme to say he had been informed of the move. Corbin said the development was an alarming one.
He urged Sharma to remain calm, adding that if he keeps his faith the problem will be resolved. The PNCR had in a statement on Thursday last 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 might 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 PNCR said.
Chairman of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan said in a statement yesterday that Guyana was bleeding once again, this time not from marauding gunmen shooting wantonly at innocent civilians, but from a President shooting ill-advised nonsense at freedom of expression to justify the suspension of the popular Sharma’s TV thereby causing a massive haemorrhaging of Guyana’s democracy.
The Chairman said his party viewed the closure not only as an exhibition of unlawfulness and arrogance, and with the purpose to drive fear on the minds of critics, but also to divert attention from the rampant corruption and security crises which rage in the country.
According to the party, the political right of freedom of the press/expression truly is the lifeblood of any liberal constitutional democracy since it stands as the most important right in any community of men and women.
“It’s taking away by any government therefore must be roundly condemned and denounced. And the Alliance for Change do so condemn and denounce the Jagdeo government for closing down CNS Channel 6 for four months,” the party statement said.
The party said this newest incident on the list of authoritarian happenings within the recent past was but a vindication of what the AFC has been saying, namely that the PPP government was on the back slide into dictatorship reminiscent of the worst days of Burnham’s PNC government.
It stated further that the President must know there were many frustrated citizens who expressed themselves aggressively, even bordering on offensive. A call, which raises the disquiet of the President from a caller who does so on a live call-in programme, and expresses utterances even shocking, must never be the basis for such a lengthy closure by the President himself, it added.
AFC maintained that the President was the one who contravened the Rule of Law when he usurped the function of the ACB, acted contrary to Regulation 10 of 2001 of the Telegraphy Regulations, and then decided to be a judge in his own cause. “It is shameful and unlawful,” it added.
Government responds to GPA
Government, in response to the press statement issued by the Guyana Press Association (GPA) on the suspension on Friday night, said it views the GPA position on the issue of the suspension as a demonstration of its anti-government proclivity and urged GPA’s President Denis Chabrol to be more objective when commenting on such matters.
According to the Government Information Agency (GINA), GPA made a hasty conclusion on the matter even before the position of the minister responsible for communication, publicly disclosed reasons for the suspension.
GINA referred to the GPA statement as crooked saying that the press body recognised the infringements but at the same time seemed to be suggesting no action should be taken in a case where an incitement to kill a Head of State was rebroadcast on three occasions.
Additionally, GINA said, the GPA should obtain a copy of the release by the Office of the President, which gives details of the infringements. (Iana Seales)
