Spat grounds Linden TV station

Although all technical mechanisms are in place to facilitate transmission from the Region 10 Television Station, wrangling between the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and the Board of Trustees of Region 10 Broadcasting Inc. (RBI) has left the launch in limbo.

“We can go on air on Saturday April 9th if a consensus is met…it is the people of Region 10 who are holding back the people of Region 10,” former chairman of the region and now Head of the Board of Trustees of the RBI Sharma Solomon told Stabroek News on Saturday.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in early February, announced that the television station was expected to be up and running on the National Communications Network’s Channel 13 frequency.

However, a dispute erupted over the special purpose company set up to operate the station and the RDC’s expectation that it would control the station.

Sharma Solomon
Sharma Solomon

Nagamootoo had visited Linden and held a stakeholder consultation at the Watooka House where he reaffirmed the APNU+AFC coalition’s commitment to ensuring that the region has its own television station in the shortest time possible.

As the person responsible for the information sector, the Prime Minister used the consultation exercise to address the issue and others raised by stakeholders. He had urged all stakeholders to work towards finding common ground so that the television station can be returned to the community in short order and the matter concluded to the satisfaction of all parties, the Government Information Agency (GINA) had reported.

It was agreed by the stakeholders present that they will meet subsequently to discuss their concerns and chart a mutually agreeable way forward.

Solomon said the Board will meet on Friday to iron out issues and he hopes that an agreement is reached so that the station could be up and running by Saturday. He explained that the history of the Linden television station ownership goes back to the Green Construction Company gifting same to Linden and it was managed by the RDC on behalf of the people.

Subsequently, following protests and the deaths of three Linden men in 2012, an August 21, 2012 pact was signed between the region and the government and it was agreed that the dish and transmitter that were given to Linden will be given to the RDC. It was also agreed that the dish and transmitter should be transferred to the region within 14 days of the signing of the agreement. Further, it was agreed that the region will apply for a broadcasting licence and the government will facilitate the granting of that licence.

However, Solomon said, since then Guyana’s broadcasting laws have evolved and now there is a Broadcasting Act which deals with the ownership of a television station and how licences are awarded, and the station could not be owned by the region. As such, RBI was created by Solomon to meet the licence eligibility requirements.

The company initially comprised Directors who were taken from a cross-section of the Region 10 community. They were Solomon, Sandra Vantull, Pastor Morris McKinnon and the now deceased Haslyn Parris.

However, it was agreed that the Board be expanded to include a wider cross-section of interests in the community namely the RDC, the Mayor & Town Council, labour, business, youth, religion, and women. The Board will now have 12 directors. A replacement for Parris will also be selected on Friday.

“If we the people of Linden/Region 10 engage in acts of shortsightedness, not being able to separate the trees from the forest, then we stymie the little progress that we have made with the television station. Continued unnecessary infighting has resulted in this current regime withholding the granting of a licence,” Solomon said.