Dear Editor,
On the 12th April the Kaieteur News published an article by Adam Harris in which he stated that his position on the Sharma issue may shock his colleagues in the media. He went on to explain that his position was that C.N. Sharma had to be sanctioned for airing what had to be tantamount to a seditious statement i.e. the shooting of a head of state.
Adam referred to a conversation he and I had some years ago when I told him that I would never allow any caller to be connected to the VCT transmitter “live” since whatever they said on my broadcast, by transmitting it, I would be publishing it and that I would be just as liable as any person uttering any defamation or sedition. My position has not changed. It is a very dangerous practice.
And indeed I hold the view expounded by Adam so I want to say to him that I am in total agreement with him. C N Sharma not only published this sedition, he replayed it on three separate occasions thereafter and has to pay the price.
We have a lot of problems in the media sector in this country, the main problem is that this government has no intention of regulating the sector. They want to control it and they want to use state funds (the money of all the people) to present their PPP view to the public, to the exclusion of all others in the opposition. The Rambajan vs Trinidad and Tobago Televi-sion matter in the Trinidad courts in the 80s, makes the use of state owned media as if it were owned by the government in power an illegal act, and if we were to go before the Caribbean Court of Jus-tice or the Privy Council today, there is no question that they would rule against the monopoly of radio and they would rule that the PPP government is committing an illegal act, since they are using the state owned media, ie media owned by all of the people, as if it were the property of the party in power and not the property of all the people who pay taxes in this nation and that includes VAT. This year the government subverted 50 million of the taxpayers money to NCN in the 2008 budget State. Plainly they subverted $50 million of all of the people’s money to finance what has become a PPP propaganda machine.
So we have a big problem in this important sector. Mr Sharma’s irresponsibility in this matter diminishes our ability to solve these problems since the government can say, with a some justification, that we are all totally irresponsible and that harsh regulation is necessary to control us. We don’t need that at all at this time.
And now Adam, I come to the Stabroek News editorial of the 14th April, 2008. Someone is finally making a valid point in this matter, Mr Jagdeo was right to take this matter seriously especially in view of the fact that this sedition was published three times after it was made in the original broadcast, but the penalty is so high according to the Stabroek News’s Editorial that it is tantamount to creating a real possibility that the channel cannot survive it economically – no business can.
Consequently since CN Sharma is the biggest critic of the PPP government, this unduly high sanction can be construed by everyone, especially the international community, as an attack on freedom of speech.
President Jagdeo should reconsider his decision and make the penalty less harsh, so that it could be construed as a genuine penalty and not an attempt at victimizing Sharma for his critical views of the government by giving him a penalty which has the real danger of closing him down for good.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
