BROADCAST agencies licensed under the Broadcasting Act of 2011 will be mandated to broadcast public service programmes for a total of up to one hour daily, according to the draft broadcast regulations.

According to the draft document, broadcasting agencies are going to be mandated to air these public service programmes between 06:00hrs and 22:00hrs free of cost as required by the Minister.

Additionally, the hour referenced above does not include any address to the nation by the President or his designate, in accordance with the law, emergency notices or disaster warnings issued by the Civil Defence Commission, the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Fire Service, the Minister of Public Health and the Government generally by any agency duly authorised by law.

“The broadcasting agency may designate separate or repeat of same may include any public announcement which is urgent and of national significance…[and] shall provide to the Authority – with a fixed schedule; or a rotation of time slots, it intends to set aside to broadcast public service broadcast programmes.”

The Broadcast Authority has the power to direct a broadcasting agency to adjust or vary its schedule under paragraph (3) for public service programmes to ensure that the distribution is spread across various time slots and the agency is required to broadcast the words “this is a public service announcement or programme issued by…” at the conclusion of all public service broadcast programmes.
Moreover, the Authority reserves the right to direct a broadcasting agency to broadcast emergency notices or disaster warnings for any length of time and regularly during peak or prime advertising time periods, depending on the nature of the emergency and having regard to public safety.

An agency reserves the right to file a complaint with the Authority within 24 hours of it being asked to broadcast a programme free of cost if, in the agency’s judgment, it is not considered a public service broadcast programme.

“The Authority shall investigate and determine a complaint and issue a ruling that the programme can be reasonably considered a public service broadcast programme and direct the broadcasting agency to air the programme free of cost; or be granted an interim order to broadcast as a public service broadcast programme, and where the programme is not so considered as provided in Section 9 (a) above, order payment of regular programme cost for broadcasting the said programme; any broadcaster found by the Authority to have arbitrarily refused to broadcast a public service broadcast programme without a complaint being determined by the said Authority shall be deemed to have breached his licence and shall be sanctioned.”

All general guidelines on advertisement and programmes shall be published in the Official Gazette. Additionally, the draft regulations make provision for hate speech and states that “broadcasting authorities shall not broadcast advertisements or programmes which contain hate speech, racial incitement or terror threats.”

BROADCASTING ZONES
Meanwhile, there will be three broadcasting zones, namely, the primary, secondary and tertiary broadcasting zones and those who apply for licence to broadcast within each specific zones must place his antenna in a manner to ensure that his broadcasting coverage does not exceed the broadcasting zone; he is licensed to serve and a viable signal in terms of clarity of picture and sound is delivered to all areas of the zone in which the person is permitted to broadcast.

Persons desirous of applying for a licence have to apply to the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) and pay a non-refundable application processing fee of $25,000, while each applicant applying for a licence to broadcast in a broadcasting zone shall pay a non-refundable application processing fee of $10,000.

According to the draft regulations, should a broadcasting authority’s signal reach multiple zones with the permission of the Authority, that agency shall pay a licence fee for each additional zone in which its signal is propagated.

“A person shall apply in Form 3 in Schedule 1 and pay an application processing fee of $50,000 to the Authority to amend or vary his licence to broadcast in one or more additional zones not mentioned in the licence.”

The Authority reserves the right to grant or refuse or vary the licence for a person to broadcast in one or more additional zones. Should the Authority grant permission to the person to broadcast in one or more additional zones, the Authority shall amend or vary the terms of the licence accordingly.

“Upon being assigned an additional zone, the person shall make the first payment of licence fee for each additional zone on a pro-rata basis from the date of issue until the 31st December following, and payment of the licence fee for an additional zone thereafter as set in Section 7 (b) in respect of each financial year and made annually in advance on the 1st January of each year.”

Moreover, each person should, on or before June 30 annually, submit to the Authority its fully audited accounts for the preceding calendar year.

BROADCASTING SERVICES
Meanwhile, in the case of broadcasting services, the Authority shall issue to a person a licence which identifies one of several broadcasting services: Commercial – which is offered by a person whose gross revenue is expected to be at least 80 per cent of income through the sale of airtime, advertisement, or a combination of both; non-commercial – which is offered by a person whose funding derives from an organisation or donors as set out in the person’s business plan and in the case of renewals, a business plan, as well as audited financials by a chartered accountant.

Community broadcasting service is offered by a person, organised as a trust, managed and controlled by a Board elected from among members of the community in the geographic area to be served.

“Any company or trust which holds a commercial television or radio licence cannot be licensed to operate a community service. A broadcasting agency that offers community broadcasting service shall provide programmes which reflect the cultural, religious, language and demographic needs of the people in the community; and where there are surplus funds derived from the running of the community broadcasting service, invest those funds for the development of community broadcasting.”

The draft document states that where the Authority makes a decision to grant a licence to a person, that person shall be assigned a frequency in accordance with a table identified in Schedule 2, upon payment of licence fee to the Authority.

“The broadcast licence shall normally take effect at the start of each financial year from the 1st day of January to the 31st day of December; providing that a broadcast licence issued for the first time after the commencement of the ensuing financial year shall be prorated from the date of issue to the 31st day of December and thereafter as set out in Section 7 (c),” the document stated.

Guyana Chronicle understands that the document is to be handed over to the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel for vetting after which it is to be sent to the National Assembly for passage.