The Alliance for Change (AFC) yesterday staged a protest in front of the Homestretch Avenue offices of the National Communications Network (NCN) over its refusal to broadcast a “development ad” by party councillor Michael Carrington.
However, NCN Programme Manager Martin Goolsarran later said the party’s charges were “baseless” and he explained that the ad was not accepted because of its poor quality. He also responded to continuing charges about a government-instructed policy of refusing state media access to parliamentary opposition parties, saying that no such policy exists.
At midday yesterday, AFC Presidential Candidate Khemraj Ramjattan and the party’s Prime Ministerial Candidate Sheila Holder led the small protest by party supporters, who urged that their ads be aired. “AFC says NCN denies paid advertisement from AFC but give free time to the PPP,” one placard said.
Holder explained that Carrington indicated to NCN that he wanted it to broadcast an ad on job creation, but he was told that it did not have the time or space for it. Carrington was also reportedly told by NCN that it would not accept money for the advertisement.
Carrington, who was present at the protest, said that he thought “something is mentally wrong with these people [at NCN].” He further stated that NCN is seemingly only promoting development initiated by the ruling party. “We are working towards development too. Why can’t we be a part of development also?” he asked.
As she did at a party news conference earlier in the week, Holder expressed her disapproval of an adopted policy of the administration to have unlimited and complete access to NCN while the opposition is only allowed paid access three months prior to the election.
“…I wish to state that there is no such policy, or at least I am not aware of it,” Goolsarran, however, said, in a statement issued yesterday afternoon.
According to him, NCN does have a policy on quality, which was applied in the case of Carrington’s ad. He said the material for the ad was “poorly written and presented, with no substance or message.”
He added that Carrington was advised to make necessary corrections and return but he never did so.
Goolsarran further said he was advised that other media houses refused to carry the ad in its presented form. “I find it difficult to see how Mrs Holder perceives this to be a denial of placement. This is standard procedure and it has been applied to all our clients, including government agencies and NGOs,” he said. “The fact that Mrs Holder, as concerned as she claims to be, chose to make public statements that are unfounded and not seek any clarification from NCN or simply give me a call is a demonstration of her ‘wickedness’ towards the company.”
Meanwhile, Ramjattan said yesterday contended that while NCN is literally dominating the airwaves, the opposition parties are unable to use the medium. “We are here today to state as vigorously as we can that we object to what is going on,” he declared. He also spoke of the manner in which press releases are broadcast on NCN. “They treat AFC as if we’re non-existent,” a frustrated Ramjattan stated. “We haven’t even been given our parliamentary debates. We would love to use archival material during our campaign,” he further noted.
Recently, the main opposition PNCR told a visiting UNDP mission that it was concerned about the radio monopoly and political control and misuse of the state media by the PPP/C administration.
The party told the delegation, which was conducting a pre-election assessment of the technical assistance needs of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM),of the misuse of the state media “for PPP propaganda,” while describing it “as a dangerous development that would affect the smooth conduct of the forthcoming elections.”
