THE Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) has refuted claims that it did not want to grant a radio licence to the Guyana Publications Incorporated (GPI), the publisher of the Stabroek News newspaper.

Stabroek News had reported that, Shaleeza Khan, General Manager of GPI, has been treated unfairly by the GNBA, which recently denied the company’s application for a primary zone radio licence.

“I want to deny that allegation and reiterate that we operate at a professional level and we would not purposefully deny them the right to broadcast,” said Chairman of the GNBA, Leslie Sobers, during a press briefing at the GNBA office on Friday.

Sobers said Stabroek News was notified that no more frequencies were available in the primary zone, that delineated area being Georgetown, Region Three up to the Essequibo River, all of Region Four and Region Five and east of Region Four to the Abary River. He said there are still spots available in the secondary and tertiary zones, which include areas such as New Amsterdam and Anna Regina.

GPI had initially applied for a radio licence in February 2016 but the current board of the GNBA was not in place at that time.
As a result of the amendment to the Broadcast Act in 2017, companies were required to reapply. GPI, however, applied in November 2017, after the board of the GNBA would have met and decided on the granting of licences.

“Although they had applied, Stabroek News did not satisfy the criteria and only became fully compliant on October 6, 2018,” said Sobers, adding that by then, all the frequencies in the primary zone were already allocated.

He reiterated that it was a not a case by which the company was denied a licence but, they just could not get a frequency in the primary zone.
Sobers said GPI’s application was tabled at the level of the Legal and Licence Committee of the GNBA, which suggests that the committee recommended that the company could get a licence.

“As I said if they want, they can have a frequency in the secondary or tertiary zone…but we only grant licences for person to broadcast on those frequencies, they are distributed by the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU),” said Sobers.

According to Stabroek News, the issue was raised after Khan received a letter from the GNBA informing her that the company’s application for a radio licence for the operation of a station in the primary zone, which includes Georgetown, could not be processed.

The letter, which is dated May 7, 2019, and signed by the GNBA’s Board Secretary, Rianna Bowman, acknowledged that in 2018 the company applied for a Radio Broadcasting Licence to operate a radio station within the primary zone.