TELEVISION and radio broadcasters will be mandated to reapply for their licenses within 30 days of the commencement of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Act, and provide 60 minutes of public service programmes every day at no charge.
The Bill was read for the first time in the National Assembly on Thursday by Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo. According to the proposed legislation, failure to apply for the license within the specified timeframe will result in the broadcasting service coming to an immediate halt. The same will be for those applicants whose applications were rejected.
“A person who…continues to carry on a broadcasting service after the expiry of time specified without applying for a licence or where he has applied for a licence within the time specified but his/her application for a licence has been rejected, commits an offence,” the Broadcast (Amendment) Bill states.
Defaulters would be fined $1M and imprisonment for one year. The proposed legislation calls for the seizure of equipment relative to the television and radio broadcasters.
“All machinery and equipment used, or which can be used, for broadcasting and owned by or in the possession of, the person concerned is liable to be forfeited; but property not owned by such person shall not be forfeited unless the court is satisfied that the owner of the property knew or ought to have, with reasonable diligence, known that the person convicted had no license to carry on broadcasting service,” the bill states.
Operators or potential operators who currently have pending applications for broadcasting service licences will also be mandated to repay following the enforcement of the Act. The Broadcasting Regulations 2014 will also be revoked once the Act has been enforced.
Additionally, under the proposed legislation, all broadcasting agencies will be mandated to broadcast public services programmes for a total of up to 60 minutes per day between 06:00h and 22:00h free of cost.
The new classes of broadcasting services and zones will also be concretised in addition to a new fee structure, once the Bill is passed and assented to by President David Granger.
The Bill, which seeks to amend the Broadcasting Act 2011, introduces three classes of broadcasting services namely, commercial, non-commercial and community classes; and three types of broadcasting zones – primary, secondary and tertiary.
The primary zone comprises the Municipality of Georgetown, Region Three up to the Essequibo River, all of Region Four and Region Five east of Region Four to the Abary River. Additionally, there are four (4) Secondary zones with zone one covering all of Regions One and Two and the Essequibo Islands being part of Region Three. Secondary zone 2 includes all of Bartica while Secondary zone 3 covers all of Region Six including New Amsterdam and part of Region Five, west of New Amsterdam to the Abary River. The fourth and final Secondary zone includes all of Region 10.
Meanwhile, the Tertiary zones are all of Region Nine including Lethem; all of Region Eight including Mahdia and Region Seven excluding Bartica. In the Primary zone, the base fee has been set at $1.2M for TV and Cable Operators while Radio Operators will continue to pay $2.5M.
In the Secondary zone, the fee has been set at $600, 000 or 3.5% of gross revenue of the preceding year, whichever is greater for TV and Cable Operators while Radio Operators will be $1.25M.
In the Tertiary zone, the fee has been set at $300, 000 for TV and Cable providers and $625,000 for Radio Operators.
Radio and TV stations providing Community Broadcasting Services will only be charged a fee of $150, 000. The Broadcast (Amendment) Bill provides for public service programmes, the prohibition of programmes containing hate speech while simultaneously addressing an international agreement for broadcasting any channel or programme as part of the local service.
On Thursday, the Opposition Leader told reporters that the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill signals the end for press freedom in Guyana, as he called on Guyanese to comb through the proposed legislation.
“After it becomes law everyone has to reapply for licences, they may refuse you, you could end up without. Lots of people with licences…could lose their licences,” Jadgeo cried.
According to him, when the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had taken office, many operators were “squatting” on the airwaves. He also objected to the 60 minutes per day of free air time for public service programmes. “When they were in charge of the Parliament, they argued that GINA (Government Information Agency) was carrying too many government programmes,” Jagdeo said, while recalling that there were instances in the country’s history when the Government Agency’s budget was reduced to zero.
“At that time, a government minister visiting a project was propaganda…Now television stations and radio stations are required to give one hour per day for free to the government to broadcast those progammes, public services programmes,” the Opposition Leader noted. In the dying days of his presidency in 2011, Jagdeo had in a wholesale manner granted radio licences to several persons including his best friend, Bobby Ramroop, owner of Queens Atlantic and his party- the PPP.
