October 19, 2016 Source

PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo has flayed former President Bharrat Jagdeo for justifying giving away radio licences to his party and friends saying, the Opposition Leader’s remarks recently on the issue is a “slap in the face of Guyanese.” Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday, the Prime Minister said, “For Jagdeo to defend the unlawful act of giving away state resources to friends and cronies is a slap in the face of the Guyanese people.”

He stressed that access to public and national resources should not be done in a whimsical fashion and the Opposition Leader’s justification of the act is absurd and against the true intention of the law. “It was never intended by the spirit and letter of the law that the airwaves should be used for political propaganda, or that the party in power ought to abuse the said law to give itself an advantage,” said Prime Minister Nagamootoo.
The Opposition Leader on Tuesday last said he had no apology to make for the radio licences he granted to several persons, including his party. “They talk about the friends and family thing; the broadcast legislation…every time I open the papers I see Jagdeo gave his friends and family stuff…you hear that every single day, friends and family, and of course the PPP got a licence and I don’t mind that one,” he said, while speaking about corruption at the Sleepin Hotel recently. The former President made it clear that he is a politician and “so they can accuse me of that one,” making specific reference to the radio licence given to the PPP. The radio station called Freedom Radio operates out of the PPP’s headquarters, Robb Street.

But Prime Minister Nagamootoo has taken note of Jagdeo’s comments and said “what Jagdeo says reinforces his warped concept of paramountcy of the party.” Just before he demitted office in 2011, Jagdeo had granted 11 radio licences and frequencies to his friends, relatives and party supporters. The Broadcasting Bill was passed in the National Assembly on July 28, 2011, and assented to in September of that year and the former president distributed the radio frequencies days before the November 2011 general elections.

Licences and frequencies were given to Telcor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc. owned by Ruth Baljit, sister of former Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, Business man Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, a friend of Jagdeo, New Guyana Company Ltd., publishers of Mirror newspapers, the Little Rock Television Station (Berbice), Hits and Jams, Maxwell Thom, Alfro Alphonso, Haslyn Graham, and Anand Persaud.
Those licences were granted under the colonial Postal and Telegraph Act and announcement of Jagdeo’s distribution of radio licences and frequencies resulted in widespread criticism from several persons, organisations and groups including veteran broadcaster and journalist Enrico Woolford, who had moved to the court to have the distributed licences revoked.

The Guyana Media Proprietors Association and the Guyana Press Association (GPA) had also raised concerns about the manner in which the licences had been distributed and to whom. Of those denied radio licences were Stabroek News, Kaieteur News, Capitol News, HBTV Channel Nine and CNS Channel Six.

The Prime Minister reiterated the need for there to be a review of the licences issued. He said “where it is found that the licences were illegally granted, they ought to be revoked.” He told the Guyana Chronicle that he had hoped that new regulations would have been in place by now to set standards by which licensees should operate. The PPP and Jagdeo had argued that in the absence of a Broadcasting Authority at the time the licences were issued, as president, he had the authority to issue the licences. He had maintained that all recipients of the licences and frequencies met the established criteria for same to be granted.