NCN misrepresented statements made in Parliament

Dear Editor,

It seems that there are no limits to the extent to which the publicly owned NCN will go to distort, misrepresent and even manufacture statements of the leaders of the Alliance for Change. It is shocking that a few malevolent persons in that organisation are bringing such discredit to the dozens of young Guyanese carrying on their professional work. No doubt these few are doing the dirty work of their political masters at Freedom House who are running scared of the gains made by our party among ‘their people.’

The latest mischief arose from last Thursday’s debate on the Amendment to the Motor Vehicles And Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2011 – Bill No. 16/2011, during which I referred to certain findings of a psychological study done of the country’s mini-bus sector. The research was on a condition called ‘Oppositional Defiant Disorder’ (ODD). The name of the author is Balogun Oba Mwanza. I heard of it on July 26, 2011 at a launching ceremony of the American University of Research at the Pegasus Hotel where preliminary presentations of several research efforts were made.

In its news report NCN failed to state that my comments were quotations and references from that study. Instead it sought to attribute to me the words of the study and then solicited comments from the public which were incorporated into a subsequent newscast.

Once again NCN has crossed the line between poor and unprofessional journalism to outright lies that in normal circumstances would elicit an apology, investigation and disciplinary action. Sadly, nothing is normal at NCN which for too long has been operating as a mouthpiece and agent of the ruling PPP/C.

The public is aware of another similar instance when I produced irrefutable evidence in an analysis of the Old Age Pension Scheme to show that approximately seventeen thousand payments involving hundreds of millions of dollars were being paid to phantom pensioners, money that could have been used to pay significantly more to genuine pensioners.

The conduct of the NCN has no place in a decent society where the rule of law prevails and as a first step to vindicating myself I am writing NCN requesting copies of the broadcasts on these two issues.

Yours faithfully,
Sheila Holder