Dear Editor,
It is long past the time for Guyana to establish an independent Broadcast Authority to monitor and regulate all radio and television broadcasts emanating from Guyana. This independent statutory body should consist of a chairman and other members appointed by the president in consultation with the opposition.
Such a broadcasting authority ought to be responsible for the issuance of broadcast licences and the supervision of all local broadcasting stations ensuring their compliance with legal and licence obligations. It should also preserve due impartiality in respect of matters of political or industrial interest or relating to current public policy, and fairly apportion broadcasting facilities and time between persons who belong to different political parties and minority groups. It must also ensure that local broadcasting services consist of public, private and community broadcasts that offer varied and comprehensive programming to cater for all interests and tastes.
The Guyana government must work with alacrity to establish a well-constructed and functional broadcast authority capable of issuing licences based on properly established criteria and able to properly monitor licensing, regulation of content, and regulation of ownership.
Most countries around the world employ broadcast authorities of various designs with many functions. Broadcast authorities form part of any democratic society. And if Guyana is indeed the democratic country we are daily led to believe, then there should be no way that after 20 years of this new era of democracy there can still be no established authority.
Perhaps with the establishment of a Guyana Broadcast Authority there can be an equitable distribution of licences in both the television and radio spectra. Content regulation can also ensure that censorship is not done on the whims of government, but by established rules and regulations. A local broadcast authority will surely result in the deregulation of radio.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Francois
