…says Shadick has a lot to explain to Guyanese

PRIME Minister, Moses Nagamootoo has called out Bibi Shadick for what he described as her hypocrisy as it relates to the amendment to the Broadcasting Act, saying that the former government minister is part of the PPP cabal that has a vested interest and that she has much to explain to the Guyanese people for the unlawful giveaway of strategic radio and television licences to party cronies, friends and family.
The PM’s comments come days after Shadick, through former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, said that she does not “back the broadcasting bill” and that her appointment as a member of the Guyana Broadcasting Authority was delayed, during which time the other members were involved in drafting recommendations for regulations to the Broadcasting Act 2011. “I was appointed to the board after a delay of more than two months during which time the other members were involved in drafting recommendations for regulations to the Broadcasting Act 2011; recommendations which the Prime Minister claims he used as the basis for the ‘infamous’ amendments to the Act. Personally, I consider the amendments to be unconstitutional and as a member of the Board, I was not involved in making any recommendations. In fact, it is my belief that my appointment to the Board was deliberately delayed for the period during which the recommendations were being drafted. At Wednesday’s meeting which the Prime Minister attended, the Board was not asked to nor did it express it’s “backing” for the amendments to the Broadcast Bill.”

Procedure
However, in reacting to Shadick who is a commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission, and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Prime Minister Nagamootoo said there is a procedure that is outlined for the appointment of members of the board, according to provisions of the 2011 Act wherein the President makes the appointment. The PM said the ‘Jagdeo Act’ (Broadcasting Act 2011) says there shall be one member nominated by the Opposition Leader, who shall be appointed after consultation with the President. According to the Prime Minister, it is the ‘Jagdeo Act’ that reserves only one seat for the opposition. He said when it was time to reconstitute the GNBA, he took a full complement of names to Cabinet for approval and within the complement there was a place reserved for an appointee of the leader of the opposition, which cabinet approved.
Having done so, the PM said the Cabinet approved list was gazetted. “The President appointed those names as approved whereby the PM sought the name of the Opposition Leader’s nominee. Having received the name, the Prime Minister was then required to submit same to cabinet for approval. And then the entire list was approved again and published in the Official Gazette.”
The Prime Minister explained that Ms Shadick was the nominee of the Leader of the Opposition and her appointment had to go through the step-by-step procedure outlined. “There was no deliberate delaying of her appointment and for her to say that was not truthful or fair,” Mr Nagamootoo, who has portfolio responsibility for Public Information, said.
The PM said having been given her instrument of appointment, Ms Shadick became a full member of the GNBA, which she had previously chaired after she had served as a PPP Government Minister. “She would have known that regulations for broadcasting had to be made under the ‘Jagdeo Act’ to give meaning to the provisions of that act as regard classes of licences and related matters. It was under her chairmanship that regulations were made to increase fees…to impose a flat fee of $2.5M for radio and television per year and it was under chairmanship that the act required a licencee to give up ”a certain percentage of broadcasting time to the State.”

Giveaway
The prime minister also alluded to what he called the ‘giveaway’ of broadcasting frequencies to PPP associates. Bharrat Jagdeo as President of Guyana back in 2011 had awarded 13 channels to E-Networks Incorporated; the most for any single broadcasting entity currently operating in Guyana. This revelation was made by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, in the National Assembly during the debate on the 2011 Broadcast (Amendment) Bill. During his presentation, Minister Harmon examined the distribution of broadcast licences by Jagdeo just prior to him demitting office in 2011.
According to the list provided by the minister, in Regions Three and Four, E-Networks secured 10 channels: 36, 37, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48 and 49. In Regions Five and Six, the company was awarded channels 43, 44, 45, 48 and 49 – bringing the total to 13. E-Networks is owned by Vishok Persaud, who is the brother of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Parliamentarian, Vindhya Persaud, and son of the late PPP stalwart and minister, Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud.
Coming in second was the National Communications Network (NCN) with eight channels, spanning seven regions across the country. In relation to radio licences, while NCN was granted the most frequencies of any single entity, Freedom Radio Inc , which is owned by the PPP, was granted the widest broadcast reach in the country. The broadcast area where the party’s station has been able to penetrate includes: Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and 10. The only other radio station to compete with Freedom Radio was IRadio Inc., which was owned by then PPP Minister, Robert Persaud. IRadio reached seven of the 10 administrative regions in Guyana. Persaud sold the entity to ANSA McAL after the PPP lost the General Elections in 2015.
The Prime Minister said Shadick had not found anything unconstitutional then. “It must baffle the mind of any intelligent person that she would do so now. Ms Shadick as part of the PPP cabal has a vested interest and she has much to explain to the Guyanese people for the unlawful giveaway of strategic radio and television licences to party cronies, friends and family.”
According to Nagamootoo, as a former minister and party activist, Shadick and Nandlall bear responsibility for not removing from the Principal Act, anything which they now perceive to be unconstitutional and they cannot shelter under their grave omission to launch an attack on the initiative of this new government to refine provisions to make the broadcasting landscape better. “Why I am not amused that Ms Shadick sat through an entire meeting of the GNBA last week and did not express opposition then or any time prior to the meeting, to the amendments and she has been specifically invited to offer comment but had none to offer. Her subsequent posture is a reflection of double standards to say the least.”

Loopholes
The Prime Minister during his meeting with the GNBA last week, stressed that the amendment addresses the loopholes that were in the Principal Act, which states that a certain percentage of broadcast time shall be made available for public broadcasting. “So there was no cap, there was no cap to it. There was no limit to how much that certain percentage would constitute and we thought that any Law should be certain,” he stated. Mr Nagamootoo further stated that Kit Nascimento, in the 1970s, had developed a concept called “Development Support Communication (DSC), which was later integrated into a programme at the University of Guyana to be taught as a subject [course]. “I found it very interesting that the post-Nascimento recommendations were incorporated in the 2011 Act,” he further stated.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo identified that there is a difference “between government information and government provided information and party propaganda”. He noted that “no station private or public” should be required or mandated to carry party political propaganda. He said the GNBA needs to assure the Guyanese people that its understanding of public broadcasting content is not synonymous with political party propaganda.