Stabroek News
May 24, 2001

The government says it is no longer prepared to permit the unregulated use of the airwaves and all television broadcasters are being immediately invited to apply for licences.

Such licences, according to a statement yesterday from Prime Minister Sam Hinds, will encompass terms and conditions governing technical standards and the content of broadcast programming material. A broad-based committee is to be empanelled to advise on whether the content of programmes adhere to the guidelines of the Media Code of Conduct which had been drawn up here last year in the approach to general elections.

Moves to regulate the airwaves come after the government had come in for severe criticism over the past years for not doing any thing about inflammatory and divisive broadcasts on a number of television stations.

Issuing the statement in his capacity as Minister of Communications, Hinds announced that he was inviting all owners of television broadcasting stations to meet with him on Monday at the GNS Sports Complex on Carifesta Avenue to discuss the licensing and regulation of their operations.

Noting that a seminar on the broadcast sector in June 2000 had agreed to establish a committee on broadcast legislation and its report is to be submitted, Hinds said the government had decided that the current legislation no matter how deficient "must be fully applied and observed" until new legislation is passed. The legislation to be enforced is the Post & Telegraph Act and Wireless Telegraphy Regulations. It will remain in effect until a broad-based Commission on Broadcasting is set up to publicly consult and recommend the introduction of a new broadcasting law.

Hinds pointed out as justification for the decision that the Independent Media Monitoring and Refereeing Panel which had been set up to monitor compliance with the Media Code of Conduct during the recent elections had concluded that certain television stations "pushed the limits of irresponsibility to dangerous and incendiary levels". In addition, it noted that most media outlets ignored the guidelines of the code.

The media panel's report, which was also buttressed by reports from the Guyana Elections Commission's Media Monitoring Unit further said that "the complete lack of regulation of television has led to a situation where the linking of broadcast licences to the need for community responsibility is completely absent in Guyana". It had also asserted that there was an urgent need to "enact new broadcasting legislation that would ensure that those who use our airwaves are held to certain standards of community service and professional behaviour". Two talk show hosts have since been charged with sedition and are before the courts.

Tracing the background to yesterday's announcement, Hinds noted that television broadcasting arose here in the 1980s in an informal and improvised manner and broadcasters applied for and were granted licences under the Post and Telegraph Act Chapter 47:01 with the requirement that they act in accordance with the Wireless Telegraphy Regulations made under Section 63(5) of the act.

He further noted that on assuming office, the PPP/Civic government had commissioned a report by media expert Rafiq A. Khan and also had a report done by Martin Mordecai in 1995 "which informed subsequent draft broadcasting bills which were presented for public consideration". Critics have said that the government did not do enough to make this legislation a reality given that the moves started since 1993.

The next major development was in June 2000 when a seminar was held by the Ministry of Information with the owners and operators of television broadcasting stations and the committee on the legislation was agreed upon. Even after this, no report by the committee was submitted but there was a dissenting view from two of its members in the wake of disagreements,

Hinds' statement noted that the seminar had acknowledged that the electromagnetic spectrum is a national resource to be used and regulated for the purpose of public and commercial broadcasting.

Some of the key issues that the broadcast committee had been grappling with included the composition of the eventual broadcast authority and who would chair it. A key concern was ensuring that it was independent. Other issues were what the annual licensing fee would be, the breaking of the state's monopoly on radio, how would programming content be assessed, what would be done to expand local programming and a phasing in period for the new legislation. Implicit in these discussions was the cessation of pirating of signals for retransmission here. It was also the view of professionals in the field that the new scheme of things would not be able to sustain the 20 or so broadcasting outfits that currently exist.

In addition to the June 2000 committee, another committee is also considering the issue of broadcast legislation and related issues. This one stems from the dialogue that began between President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC REFORM leader Desmond Hoyte last month. This committee has met but it is unclear how far it has gone and what its relationship will be to the June 2000 group or the meeting to be held on Monday by the PM.