Ramotar defends Jagdeo’s radio decisions

Donald Ramotar

President Donald Ramotar yesterday defended former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s granting of radio licences to a number of persons days before demitting office, saying he believes the former head-of-state was fulfilling promises to de-monopolise the airwaves he made during his second term as president.

“I see it as a commitment that he had made firstly to break the radio monopoly and secondly to change some of the old laws that were there and to allow more liberalisation in this area… so I suspect he was fulfilling a commitment he made very early in his second term…from that point of view I don’t see anything irregular,” Ramotar told a news conference yesterday at Office
of the President.

The PPP/C government has come in for sharp criticism over the way radio licences were awarded.