The Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) recently sent two letters to CNS Channel 6 concerning their airing of ‘Papillon’ which had offended “against good taste and decency”, while ‘The Universal Church Hour’ broadcast had been making unsubstantiated claims about incurable diseases.
In a letter dated April 20, 2009 and addressed to ‘The Licensee’, CNS Channel 6, the ACB noted that the pastors of the programme
‘Universal Church Hour’ have been declaring that they can cure any incurable disease including HIV/AIDS.
The letter signed by ACB Chairman Evan Radhay Persaud stated, “This is highly erroneous and destructive to the population of Guyana since some individuals will eschew from proper medical treatment hoping for a religious miracle (cure).”
It also pointed out that, “It is the right of each and every Guyanese to be protected from such unsubstantiated statements and the responsibility of all television stations to play their part by broadcasting programmes of a higher standard.”
According to a copy of the letter, which CNS Channel 6 Managing Director Chandranarine Sharma made available to this newspaper, the ACB said further, “Until such statements are verified by medical professionals ‘Universal Church Hour’ should not be allowed to continue broadcasting such statements.”
And the ACB sent another letter to Sharma, dated April 27, 2009, stating that, “On Friday, April 24, 2009 at 15:00 hrs you exhibited the movie ‘Papillon’ which contained violently graphic (leaving nothing to the imagination) scenes, one in which a man’s head was severed as well as scenes of topless women.”
The ACB then declared that, “The film offends against good taste and decency and is offensive to public feeling. The exhibition of such films infringes 23A (a) of your license.”
Moreover, the ACB requested that Channel 6 “check the motion picture rating system of the movie’s country of origin which categorizes films with regard to suitability for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, substance abuse, profanity, impudence or other types of mature content (G, PG-13, R etc) before broadcasting movies,” and warned “that you desist from further infringements of this nature.”
The letter concluded by stating that the ACB was looking forward to the station’s cooperation, “since the responsibility of reaching and maintaining higher broadcasting standards belong to all of us.”
Meanwhile, Sharma acknowledged the letters, which he said were received on May 8, 2009, and “indicated that measures will be taken to ensure that the regulations of the ACB are complied with.”
CNS 6 had returned to the air in August 2008 and resumed its normal broadcasting schedule after a four-month suspension. The station had been closed in April 2008 for infringing the terms of its broadcast licence after a caller to the Voice of the People programme had threatened the life of the President, and this had then been re-broadcast on three separate occasions.
Sharma had said that where Voice of the People was concerned, there would be a 30-second delay during which operators would require callers to give their names, addresses and phone numbers before they would be allowed on the air. There were some instances, he said, such as in the case of abusive callers, where they would not be permitted broadcast time at all, but information would be taken from them and letters written on their behalf to the relevant authorities.
The ban had been instituted by President Jagdeo on April 11, acting in his capacity as Minister of Information, and it had attracted criticism from various media and rights organizations both local and international as being too severe a penalty and because the head of state had made a decision in a matter in which he was the aggrieved party.
A press release from the Office of the President at the time had said that Jagdeo was the sole authority vested with the power to decide whether a licensee had breached the terms and conditions of their licence and whether any sanctions may be imposed. The release had gone on to say that the relevant act provided that the minister may suspend or cancel the licence for breaches.
