Chairman of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) Leonard Craig yesterday said that a report that all radio licences issued by former president Bharrat Jadgeo will be rescinded is erroneous as the board has not yet made a decision on the way forward.
“What you see in the Kaieteur (News yesterday) was the over exuberance of a board member who gave an interview without authority to speak on behalf of the board and to speak on a matter we are still deliberating,” Craig told Stabroek News when contacted. Craig said that while the issue of radio spectrum licences were discussed by the board a final decision has not yet been made and that a subcommittee of the GNBA had made a recommendation that the licences granted by Jagdeo be revoked.
This newspaper understands that the GNBA has asked its legal team to analyse both the granting of the licences and if not legal the procedure for revocation of the said licences.
The authority is to get feedback from its legal minds on the 28th of this month when it meets.
Shortly before the 2011 general elections, former President Jagdeo distributed a number of radio licences and frequencies among mainly friends and supporters of the PPP.
Many groups and persons have since denounced the awards, citing the absence of any clear objective criteria in making them as well as the disregard for applications from established media entities. The Guyana Media Proprietors Association has called for a reversal of the decisions, while the Guyana Press Association has expressed concern that the distribution of the licences and frequencies was weighted in favour of friends of the governing party. Broadcaster Enrico Woolford has filed a lawsuit to quash Jagdeo’s decision arguing that it was unconstitutional. There have been other calls for the licences to be revoked.
The PPP in defence had posited that in the absence of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority, Jagdeo had the responsibility for issuing these licences. It was said that had the “government-friendly individuals” met the three criteria considered then their radio licences would have been granted.
The criteria in keeping with the law would have been that the applicants must be fit and proper; must have the financial means, the technical skills, and requirements which allow them to obtain spectrum access.
