Opposition parties slow to access state media
Stabroek News
May 25, 2003
aNone of the opposition parliamentary parties, contacted by the Stabroek News, have moved to take advantage of “the equitable access (based on parliamentary representation) to the state media by all the parliamentary parties without undue delay.”
The Information Liaison to the President, Robert Persaud, however told Stabroek News that the state media have always been accessible to the opposition parliamentary parties and cited a discussion programme on GBC on Independence in which Youth, Culture and Sports Minister Gail Teixeira together with two members of the parliamentary opposition appeared. He also cited the coverage of the PNC press conference on Thursday in the Guyana Chronicle and on GTV.
But Persaud declined to comment about the access to be provided under the May 6 communique, saying that the crafters of the communique, which has a dynamism of its own, are best suited to comment on the issue.
PNCR central executive member Deryck Bernard who is responsible for media relations told Stabroek News that his party was still discussing the issue and would hope to make approaches to the state-owned Guyana Broadcasting Corporation, the Guyana Television Broadcasting Company Limi-ted and the Guyana National Newspapers Limited, in connection with this issue.
Desmond Trotman, the GAP/WPA activist and Regional Democratic Coun-cillor for Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) told this newspaper that his party intended to test the waters within a matter of days. He explained that with regard to the Guyana Chronicle his party had been unable to get its press releases published in that paper.
Another of the issues related to the state-owned media, on which President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin agreed, is the implementation of non-partisan boards of directors for the state-owned media and the National Frequency Management Unit. The communique said non-partisan boards would be in place within four months.
The two leaders also agreed to freeze the granting of new commercial frequencies for television and radio until the new broadcasting legislation came into effect. However, when the National Broadcasting Authority, to be created by the broadcast legislation, comes into being, it will give priority to the granting of commercial radio licences using the statutorily enshrined criteria which emphasise high standards of broadcasting and serious penalties for their infringement.
The communique provides for the draft broadcast legislation to be ready for consultation within two months and to be laid in parliament before September 1, 2003.
Stabroek News was unable to reach ROAR’s leader Ravi Dev, who is said to be away until next week.
