A small group of persons staged a protest in front of the National Communications Network yesterday as they urged the entity to provide a level playing field for the election campaign.
According to political activist Freddie Kissoon, the protest was sponsored by the 1823 Coalition for Parade Ground while the aim was to highlight what he described as the blatant misuse of the state-run media house by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) during the election season.
Kissoon said that for the election to be fair, the playing field has to be level. He highlighted the position taken by former president Bharrat Jagdeo in his Commonwealth report on the elections in Sri Lanka earlier this year.
“When he was in Sri Lanka, he reported two things, that the ruling party in Sri Lanka was using state resources for political campaign purposes. He talked about unfair advantage of state media giving coverage to the ruling party. But that happens to be the identical thing which Jagdeo, as the front man in the PPP’s campaign is doing,” he said.
“Chronicle and NCN are literal toys in the hands of the PPP… A PPP campaign is not a government campaign,” Kissoon added.
The political activist said plans have been made to write a letter to the Carter Center observers who are currently in the country to oversee elections. While describing the actions of NCN to be nothing short of madness, he also stated that protest action will continue in front of the media house until the end of the election season or until something is done about the situation.
