The new Board of Directors of both entities with Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo

More jobs for the “boys”…

…had promised “no party hacks” 

By Jillicia Pinder

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo on Tuesday backpedalled on a promise he made to end the political interference in the management and administration of several of the country’s State media entities as he has appointed political party members to serve on the Boards of the National Communications Network (NCN) and the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL).

Despite promising that State Media Boards would be free from “political hacks”, several members found on the coalition Government’s National List for the May 11 elections have managed to earn a spot on the State Boards, including Jean La Rose, who was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors for GNNL, and Tabitha Sarabo.

Patricia Woolford, who is a member of the People’s National Congress/A Partnership for National Unity (PNC/APNU), was also appointed to the Board. Ruel Johnson and Scheherazade Ishoof Khan, two open supporters of the APNU/Alliance For Change (AFC) coalition as well as Imran Khan, who is Director of Public Information at the Prime Minister’s Office have been placed on both Boards.

The Prime Minister had recently stated that members of the Board of Directors for the State Media entities would be “professionals” and they would bring to the fore, in Guyana, a “new approach to information and communication”.

New Boards of Directors of State agencies NCN and GNNL were officially appointed on Tuesday during a ceremony at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, Liliendaal.

The other appointees for NCN’s Board of Directors include Karen Davis, Bert Wilkinson, Sohan Poonai and Director of Public Communications Mark Archer, who was a long-time Public Relations Officer (PRO) for President David Granger and APNU.

For GNNL, the members are Bishwa Panday, the Chair who the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) claims was a known  financier  of the APNU/AFC elections campaign and relative of Khemraj Ramjattan; Dr Paloma Mohamed; Margaret Lawrence; Kojo McPherson; Dhanwanti Sukhdeo; Carolyn Walcott, and Colin Thompson.

Independent

Nagamootoo reportedly had proposed that the State-owned media operate independently of Government. And privately-operated media houses be no longer subject to harassment, intimidation and threats of violence.

Nagamootoo had also mentioned that while the new Administration would make no attempt to curb the constitutional right of freedom of any media, including that of the State, it would not turn a blind eye to irresponsible, partisan information that had characterised some media under the previous Administration.

PPP’s reaction

The PPP in a statement said it was not surprised at the recently-named State Media Boards which are dominated by political appointees of the APNU/AFC Government, contrary to statements by Prime Minister Nagamootoo.

“These two Boards are shallow on professionals and deep on political hacks,” the Opposition Party stated.

The PPP noted that Nagamootoo had already backpedalled on his promise of “professionalising” the State media, when Beverly Alert, a candidate on the APNU/AFC list, was appointed Head of the Government Information Agency.

The PPP also referred to Nagamootoo’s remark in sections of the media that he was “not going to be a Minister responsible for information and who puts party hacks into these Boards, to just draw stipends for not working, but to do party propaganda”.

The former ruling party stated that “the duplicitous nature of the APNU/AFC is being unravelled daily, as one election promise after another is being thrown out the window”.

 The PPP also believes this move by the David Granger-led Administration is “just the preview, the full show is still to come”.

The Opposition Party added, however, that Guyanese were wise people and would soon come to the realisation they were ripped-off with lofty assurances by the APNU/AFC.(jpinder@guyanatimesgy.com)