With the passage of broadcast legislation, government will now review applications for radio licences but will not issue any before elections, President Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday.
Former television station proprietor Anthony Vieira had taken the government to court over radio licences and the court directed the government to consider all the applications received at the time. “I will fulfil the order of the court by reviewing all of the applications that are before us to see if they have any merit and we can issue licences. And if we’ll issue licences, then we are not gonna allow them to become operational until after the elections. So there is no charge that it’s done for electoral purposes. So this allows us to fulfil the court order,” Jagdeo said during a media briefing at the International Conference Centre at Liliendaal yesterday.
Asked why the government went ahead with the Broadcasting Bill without seeking consensus and consulting with stakeholders, the President said that the draft was “dusted off from 16 years ago.” He said that one of the reasons for the
