The National Communica-tions Network (NCN) has refuted claims that it has been granted a licence to operate a new television channel in Berbice, pointing out that Channel 21 has always been in existence.
Stabroek News yesterday spoke to the semi-autono-mous company’s Programme Manager Martin Goolsarran following the publication of a letter in this newspaper in which the writer alleged double standards on the part of the government.
According to the writer, the move by the state media to start broadcasting on Channel 21 last weekend was a “clandestine one” which exposed the “double standard of the government of the day.”
“To bring another state channel to this region and still deny others the rights and authority to bring other television and radio services to Berbice is a shameful and vindictive act,” the writer stated. But according to Goolsarran, the channel in question is not a new one and had been operating in Berbice all along.
“Channel 21 was already in Berbice at the other end broadcasting to Upper Corentyne, we just brought it down. It is not a new channel or a new state channel as some are saying,” he said.
Goolsarran added that the intention is to have the regular Channel 15 and Channel 25, another which he said members of the public seemed to have missed, broadcasting central programming from Georgetown.
“What will happen is channels 15 and 25 will cover the entire East Berbice while channel 21 will cover the community (New Amsterdam).”
Questioned on the move of the station at this time, the NCN official said that had always been part of the company’s plan.
“The whole thing is because we want to finalise the arrangement with the community station just like we have in Linden, it’s the execution of that plan.”
President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin on May 6, 2003 signed a communiqué in which they agreed to a freeze on the granting of all new commercial frequencies for television and radio by the National Frequency Manage-ment Unit until the enactment of new broadcasting legislation.
At the time it was agreed that the new legislation would be laid before the National Assembly within four months of May 1, 2003. Since then the government and opposition camps have been casting blame at each other as to who was at fault for the delays in getting the long awaited legislation passed.
Work at the task force level had failed to provide any consensus on a draft bill and the two sides had agreed to have the matter resolved at the parliamentary level.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds earlier this year said that a final draft of the Broadcast Bill was being reviewed before it was tabled in Parliament and he at the time rejected claims that the administration was downplaying a High Court ruling on broadcast licences. Chief Justice Ian Chang in December 2008 ruled that government had a constitutional duty to deal with applications for broadcast licences efficiently, a decision the government said it would appeal.
