Dear Editor,
The Constitution of Guyana contains the following provision in Article 149.
“(1) Subject to the provisions of this article ––
“(a) No law shall make any provision that is discriminatory either of itself or in its effect; and
“(b) No person shall be treated in a discriminatory manner by any person acting by virtue of any written law or in the performance of the functions of any public office or any public authority.“
Many broadcasters in this country have in the past objected to the government’s radio and television stations in Guyana, operating under the corporate name National Communications Network which is used solely for government propaganda, being given an annual subvention from the national budget whilst at the same time competing with private broadcasters in the limited Guyana advertising marketplace but which are not receiving a similar subvention.
In fact the situation is made even more unfair since it is common knowledge that the government’s stations use their power to coerce and cajole advertising from businesses under various threats which private broadcasters cannot employ; additionally the government’s advertising is heavily biased in favour of their media in flagrant violation of the Declaration of Chapúltepec.
These acts by the government which have been going on for more than 15 years offend the equality clause of our constitution identified herein; it‘s therefore not only unfair it is unlawful. NCN should operate in one of the following ways.
1. There should be no subvention from the government and NCN should compete fairly and equally with the private broadcasters.
2. There could be a subvention from Parliament that would allow NCN to serve the political interests of the nation and remove itself from the advertising market place completely.
We must congratulate the opposition for removing this unfair and unlawful subsidy which offends equality and fair play in the broadcasting landscape of Guyana, while the news report including statements from Mohamed ‘Fuzzy‘ Sattaur captioned ‘NCN to implement hiring freeze‘ in the Stabroek News of May 1 has all of the hallmarks of a bizarre comedy.
Mr Fuzzy Sattaur seems to be very fuzzy about the inherent unfairness of the status quo which gives his entity an extra $82 million dollars a year, which guarantees that all the international cricket and other events end up on the government stations and not on private stations which are unable to bid against NCN because of this subsidy. In addition what he is doing by excluding any member of the opposition from being given access to NCN, is also unlawful in many countries; that station is owned by the people of this country, all of them, and not just those who are functionaries of the PPP. To put this $82 million in perspective for the public, in the last year (2009) when I operated VCT28 network, the budget for the entire year was less than $50 million.
Finally, I want to correct the myth that NCN is a private company. This statement by Dr Luncheon demonstrates the eyepass which passes for governance and accountability to the people of this country by the administration. NCN is a state-owned corporation and frankly, we have not seen any audited annual reports of this entity tabled in our Parliament as is required by our laws. We the citizens of this country who are the true owners of this corporation have no idea how it is run and who runs it. And we should.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
