Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman has described as “obscene” the awarding of radio licences days before the 2011 general elections and the government is now facing questions over the propriety of allocations in the name of a Member of Parliament and a senior government official.
Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud, in whose ministry one of the allottees is a deputy permanent secretary, refused to comment on the matter when contacted by Stabroek News on Thursday. It is being alleged that Persaud is also connected to the licence and multiple frequencies awarded and he also refused to address this question.
Both the Jagdeo and Ramotar administrations have faced a barrage of criticism over the November 2011 awards outside of the new broadcast legislation which had already been assented to but not operationalised. However, the flak escalated after a question in Parliament in the name of AFC MP Cathy Hughes produced answers two weeks ago which had never before been provided by the administration.
Critics have said there was no acceptable reason for former President Bharrat Jagdeo to have made these awards outside of the framework of the legislation except for wanting to ensure that his friends got licences. Despite the importance of the awarding of the radio licences – after the PPP/C had kept a monopoly in place for 19 years – there had been no formal announcement of the decisions. Dribs and drabs of information in November 2011 from the Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon were all that were provided to the media. Some names of awardees were provided by Dr Luncheon but there was no information at all on who had screened the applications, under which law they were considered, what were the criteria for consideration and who had made the final decision.
What made the process even more galling, according to observers, was that well-known media houses which had applied several times were not granted licences neither did they even receive an acknowledgment from the National Frequency Management Unit to which they had submitted applications. These media houses included Stabroek News which has been operating for 27 years, Kaieteur News, CNS Channel Six and EMW Communications.
‘No criteria’
Experts with whom this newspaper spoke said government seems to have taken advantage of grey areas of the Broadcast Act to have its way.
“The real problem that we have is that there are no criteria of any kind established under the Broadcast Act,” said veteran broadcaster Kit Nascimento. He added that the Act is insufficient in this light and needs regulations which will govern the criteria and requirements by which one acquires a licence to broadcast is granted.
“You have a very limited spectrum and a competition for the privilege of using it… there must be very specific criteria set out,” he said, pointing to the need for public hearings to determine the merits or demerits’ of applications for licences.
Noting that former President Jagdeo used his authority as Minister of Information prior to the enactment of the Broadcast Act, Nascimento said that the process was not a transparent one.
According to the Act, a licence shall be issued only to a company incorporated or continued under the Companies Act, or to a trust, either of which must fulfil the following conditions: the only business carried on, or proposed to be carried on, by the company or trust shall be all or any of the following: the establishment and operation of a broadcast service; the establishment and operation of such associated telecommunication services ancillary to the operation of the category of broadcasting service concerned as may be authorised under the Telecommunications Act or its successor.
The Act notes that in granting or refusing a licence, the Authority will have to consider: whether the applicant is eligible under the Act to hold a licence; whether the applicant is a fit person to hold a licence; the technical standards established or proposed to be established by the applicant; the proposed programmes to be broadcast by the applicant; and whether the applicant has provided information to the Authority on its public hearing or briefing with the relevant communities or with relevant geographic areas which would be serviced and their views.
Nascimento said that while Guyana’s laws may be silent on whether one can acquire a licence to broadcast on the purchase of a station, international best practices dictate that this should not be the case. Notably, Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop, a friend of former President Jagdeo purchased the entire operation of Vieira Communications Television in 2009 and with it acquired all its licences – including the eventual radio licence. Dr Ramroop’s group was to later have multiple frequencies assigned to him by Jagdeo in the controversial 2011, pre-election decision.
“I am not sure we have a law that governs that but [based] on international best practices [a licence] should not be purchasable,” Nascimento said. “I should not be able to buy your licence to broadcast,” he said. “If I buy your television station it should not give me the right to broadcast. This is a privilege afforded to me [based on my application],” he told Stabroek News.
He said that the law should require every individual or company wishing to broadcast to apply for such a licence.
He said that the mere fact that Dr. Ramroop bought Channel 28 should not have given him that privilege to broadcast. He said however that the Broadcast Act could be interpreted that way.
Section 27 of the Act says that a licence granted to a person shall not be transferred to any other person without the prior written consent of the authority.
Speaking to the Stabroek News, Prime Minister Sam Hinds said that there could be a transfer of licences in cases where there has been a transfer of shares in the company holding the licence. “Generally licences are transferrable only with the consent of the GNBA (Guyana National Broadcasting Authority). But the share sale approval may not have been a requirement at the time of the sale of the company,” he said.
Hinds said that the distribution of licences in late 2011 was not expected to be comprehensive and that companies should pursue their applications with the GNBA. “The [former] President had acted to comply with the court order. Yes we have many [frequencies] still there and available in different parts of the spectrum, especially with respect to digital,” said Hinds. Critics have noted that the 2011 decisions were not tied to comprehensive and progressive legislation and therefore there is an unlevel playing field with those who may now have to apply under the more onerous requirements of the new broadcasting act. The critics also note that the court order did not mandate any particular action.
Asked whether he believed that the holder of a licence being a government functionary is permissible as is the case with Omar Lochan–the deputy permanent secretary in the Natural Resources Ministry—Nascimento said that this depends on how the law is written. “But according to international best practices, it would be highly unusual for the authority to [grant a licence] to a public servant,” he said.
In January 2012, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Luncheon defended the award of the radio licences, saying that criteria were used in determining the licencees. He stressed that according to the law, applicants must be fit and proper; must have the financial means and must have the technical skills; and requirements that allow them to obtain spectrum access. He said too that the court ruling in the Vieira radio licence case and its implications also influenced the final decision.
The Guyana Media Proprietors’ Association has called on the government to make public the criteria used to determine who got a licence and who did not and expressed concern about the lack of transparency in the process.
Deputy Permanent Secretary Lochan when asked by Stabroek News about his plans for the five radio frequencies said, “At the appropriate time we will disclose [these plans]. I don’t want to comment any [further].” Lochan is listed in the Prime Minister’s answer from Parliament as the contact person for Telcor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc., which has been awarded five radio frequencies, namely 89.7, 90.1, 91.5, 104.9 and 103.3.
Minister Persaud, when asked about the allocations of the frequencies to the official in his Ministry, refused to comment. This newspaper asked him whether he was connected to Telcor and Cultural Broadcasting Company and whether it was not a conflict of interest that the Deputy Permanent Secretary in his Ministry was the person named as the contact person for this entity. In response, the Minister said, “I have no comment to make.”
New Guyana Company Limited – the publishers of the Mirror newspaper – received channels 91.1, 90.7, 90.5, 105.9 and 105.3. PPP/C Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj, who is listed as the contact person for these frequencies, told Stabroek News that he was travelling and will address questions as to what the company plans to do with the stations upon his return. There are usually strict rules governing whether a Member of Parliament can be connected to the quest for public resources, which the frequencies are.
Commenting on the issue at his most recent press conference, Dr. Luncheon said the allocation of multiple frequencies to a single applicant had to do with the intended broadcast range the applicant wanted to reach.
‘Obscene’
When this newspaper asked Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman to comment on the perceived conflict of interest which arises in the case of Seeraj being a Member of Parliament, he said that such a situation is not clearly addressed in any code of conduct. But he said that it is a phenomenon that should be frowned upon. “It does raise eyebrows,” he said.
“We have the Standing Orders…we have basically the English House of Commons practice…and we have a handbook for members of the National Assembly. We are looking at all of these realities now. Other countries have a codified Code of Conduct,” he said.
Commenting on the distribution of the radio frequencies, the Speaker called it “obscene” and said it was one of the worst things he has seen in a long time. “Decency, commonsense and good governance dictate [a reversal of the allocations],” he said.
He said that where the national patrimony is concerned and in this technological age, “We have to exercise judicial management of this resource for the national good.” He said that the allocations weighted to friends of the ruling party “undercuts our democracy.”
Trotman said that there ought to be a commission that would be able to apply rules and make allocations in a fair manner. He called for the authorities to make available frequencies to each of the major religious communities.
One of the persons on the wait list for years – Chandra Narine Sharma – revealed to this newspaper the numerous letters written to the NFMU and the Prime Minister asking for his radio licence application to be favourably considered. Further, he has also written numerous times requesting to extend the signal of his television broadcast. In December last year, Sharma wrote the Chairperson of the GNBA applying for permission to expand his television signals in Berbice, Essequibo and Linden. Attached to this letter was a proposal outlining the technical details of the station’s plans.
In December 2012 too, Sharma also wrote the GNBA applying for a radio licence on the FM band with the main broadcast from Georgetown and secondary broadcast translators in Linden and New Amsterdam.
Another veteran broadcaster on the NFMU and GNBA wait list is Enrico Woolford of EMW. He said that he is yet to receive as much as an acknowledgement from the NFMU having written to that body several times since 1997.
He said that in 1997 he was experimenting with ESPN and CNN International and was acting as their authorised agent in Guyana. This he said was permitted under the Postal and Telegraph Licence, the prevailing authority at the time. He said that he wrote the then Minister of Public Works and Communications and he got a response saying that he had to wait.
In 2008, Woolford wrote President Bharrat Jagdeo and wrote again when the Broadcast Authority was established in 2012. He wrote to the NFMU and never received an acknowledgement. He said that in all his engagements the NFMU never replied to him.
He said that because he sat on the Joint Committee on Radio Monopoly and Non Partisan Boards he did not want to indulge in what many others were doing at the time – squatting on the airwaves.
On the question of links, Woolford said that while he can accept to some degree the explanations proffered by government, “it can still be considered a political way to use a technical reason to arrive at a position you already decided to arrive at.”
He said, “The administration wanted to have frequencies assigned to persons they feel comfortable with.
Their explanation is that they will assign one station with many frequencies – but this is only applicable depending on how it is done.”
He said that the media are confusing relaying information from point to point and broadcasting from one point to several points. “You could have one station with several frequencies.
The issue here is how the process was done and who was called in first,” said Woolford.
