Letters to the Editor

PPP statement on radio frequencies is spreading half-truths and distortions

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Dear Editor,

I refer to the massive load of garbage emanating from Robb Street denying the radio frequencies give-away contained in an article in the Kaieteur News of December 10. Captioned ‘PPP justifies Jagdeo’s frequencies’ giveaway,’ I, among others, am accused of being misinformed and spreading half-truths and distortions. It is not me who is spreading half-truths and lies and is misinformed.

I therefore wish to address a few untruths and distortions contained therein.

  1. The PPP tells us that 10 persons and entities were given licences after the passing of the Broadcasting Act in 2011. However, the act was not brought in to force until 2012 by naming the Authority in early September 2012. Therefore the Broadcast Authority could not possibly have awarded these entities broadcast licences in 2011 because until the naming of the board members in 2012 it did not legally exist.
  2. “With specific reference to radio Guyana it should be noted that it was given in compliance with an order of the court in a case filed by Mr Anthony Vieira.” The appeal court in 2009 did not award a licence to Vieira communications Ltd. Nor was the plaintiff Anthony Vieira; it was a case between Vieira communications Ltd (VCL) and the government. The appeal court instructed as follows: “that the application by VCL for a radio broadcast licence was attended by indifference and callous discourtesy in that it never received an acknowledgement of its application and a response from the NFMU, adding that more so, it was affected by inordinate delay on the part of the NFMU in giving consideration to the request. The court noted also that there was no urgency and or efficiency by the NFMU in considering VCL’s application.” At no time did the appeal court grant a licence to Vieira Communications Ltd; it merely said that the monopoly was unlawful. But it must be noted that VCL was granted leave to apply for a radio licence, not some entity called radio Guyana; the legality of this has not been challenged.
  3. That the other 9 equally flawed issuances of radio licences were to geographically situated companies, including Alphonso, who is now known to be very close to the PPP in the Essequibo, and Christie in Berbice – the same. Graham in Linden is named and they have begun the process of softening him with harassment to control him. I don’t have to say anything about Hits and Jams; everyone knows that they are associated with the PPP and they are in Georgetown, so geography has nothing to do with their getting a licence. They became broadcasters in 2007 when they obtained permission to operate the channel which TBN was using in this country for 7 years. They had never been broadcasters before 2007, but now they have radio and TV licences, although Channels 9, 7, 13, Stabroek News, Kaieteur News and Enrico Woolford had all applied more than a decade ago did not get any licences. I am not going to deal with the rest of the lopsided awardees who are all based in Georgetown and are mostly, in one way of the other, politically biased in favour of the PPP.

I am still maintain that all of these ‘licences’ were illegally granted and must be awarded by an impartial and autonomous Authority which is structured according to the agreements in the communiqué between Jagdeo and Corbin.

  1. That “Mr Anthony Vieira [is] truly one of the pioneers of television broadcasting in Guyana, notwithstanding how many copyright infringement laws he may have broken.” Can those in Robb street say when and to whom they have been paying for the rights to movies and music they broadcast daily on NCN, both radio and television, for decades?
  2. I am more knowledgeable on the matter of broadcasting, frequencies, etc, than anyone in Robb Street, the Broadcast Authority and the NFMU.
  3. “The truth is that Mr Vieira sold his interests in broadcasting for a hefty sum of money and is now desperately trying to remain relevant in the area of broadcasting.” The PPP well knows that I am the strategic management and investment partner of the Linden TV station. My participation guarantees that Linden TV can go on the air within weeks of the National Broadcasting Authority granting them a licence for which the government have had us running behind them for over two years and four months. In the agreement, which the government, the region and the APNU signed, the government promised that within 14 days of 21st August 2012 the dish and the transmitter would be handed over to the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10. The people of Linden have waited two years and 4 months and the transmitter has not yet been handed over.
  4. I did not sell for a hefty sum of money; if it was a hefty sum of money I would not now be living in a rented house in Prashad Nagar; after years of victimisation by the PPP because of my activism against them, the debts I had accrued forced me to sell VCT.

Editor, this is the same PPP which is apparently astonished that the opposition, fed up with the broken promises and lies of the PPP in the Herdmanston Accord, the dialogue, the communiqué and the Linden agreements, are now refusing to waste more time in fruitless and pointless discussions with them.

 

Yours faithfully,

Tony Vieira

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