$2.5M licence fee designed to favour NCN and Ramroop’s TVG28 – Viera

Veteran television broadcaster Tony Vieira is of the opinion that television and radio broadcasters should not pay the exorbitant $2.5M annual licence fee imposed by Government since it was designed to “put” current small broadcasters out of business and act as a deterrent to new broadcasters with limited financing from entering the industry.

Tony Vieira

According to Vieira, the 1000 percent fee increase was done to favour the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN) and TVG 28 owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi “Bobby” Ramroop, best friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo. Both of these are networks covering Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice.
His opinion is that the elimination of independent broadcasters through this oppressive fee structure would restrict freedom of expression on the airwaves.
Vieira referring to the broadcasters who challenged the imposed fee in the High Court last year, said that they are dissatisfied with Chief Justice Ian Chang’s ruling. They have since launched another case questioning the legality of the authority itself.
He said Chang’s ruling did not address the inequity or the constitutional illegality of the $2.5 million fee, annually.
He added, “The CJ only ruled on an insignificant point regarding the timing and the Cabinet being involved in the imposition of the licence fee, which can easily be corrected by the Broadcast Authority.
“He did not address the fundamental violations of free speech and natural justice on which he was asked to rule. That leaves the broadcasters having to pay the fee from 2014 onwards.”
According to Vieira, the Broadcasting Act makes provision for the Guyana Broadcasting Authority charging a fee after conducting polls, extensive market research and consultations. However, this was not done when the Cabinet, and not the Broadcast Authority, imposed the $2.5M fee.
He said that had the Authority done its market research in good faith, it would have discovered that the Guyana marketplace does not have the sort of advertising revenue to support this kind of high fee structure.
The fee structure highlighted the bad faith of the PPP. The communiquÉ between Jagdeo and Corbin made it clear that before a broadcast bill was presented to parliament, there would have been widespread consultations especially with the opposition. This never happened.
“If broadcasters are to pay the $2.5 million per annum, given their small revenue, their businesses would fold and this would be the vilest sort of violation to their freedom of speech rights enshrined in the constitution and any form of natural justice,” he said.
He explained that Demerara zone, which includes Georgetown, is a big and lucrative market. A broadcaster operating in this area has the opportunity to earn more than those operating in Essequibo and Berbice. However, the fee being charged across the board as it is does not take this into consideration, he stressed.
Vieira intimated that currently NCN and TVG are the only channels covering all three zones Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice. They are being charged the standard fee of $2.5 million per annum or three per cent of gross revenue.
But, since the income of the Berbice and Essequibo regions are so small and is such a burden to the broadcasters there, he is of the opinion that these network channels NCN and TVG, competing as they are with the smaller channels, should be required to pay $2.5 million for Demerara, $2.5M for Berbice and $2.5M for Essequibo.
According to Vieira, the Broadcasting Act was designed to make the broadcasting environment inequitable with the potential to remove the small broadcasters from the air. He said that it violates freedom of speech and reduces the number of ideas on air.