Hoyte Blackman TV (HBTV 9) was yanked off the air at 1 am yesterday after Prime Minister Sam Hinds acted upon a recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) to suspend its licence for 24 hours for violating the terms under which it was granted.

No announcement was made yesterday by the Prime Minister’s office on the matter but Stabroek News was told that a statement is to be issued shortly. HBTV Channel 9 carried a notice on Wednesday notifying the public that it had been advised by the PM that its licence would be suspended.

The station’s licence was suspended over a statement carried on the `At Home With Roger’ programme which was deemed by the ACB to be in violation of the terms of the station’s licence. Based on a Memorandum of Understanding sealed between President Bharrat Jagdeo and the late PNCR Leader Desmond Hoyte, the ACB is empowered to make such recommendations and the PM is obliged to act upon them as the minister with responsibility for the broadcast sector.

Sources told Stabroek News yesterday that the station had been written to by the ACB on two occasions asking it to respond to concerns raised over the offending statement carried on the programme on June 3. The sources say the management of the channel did not respond to either letter and the ACB then decided on the suspension. The management of the station last evening denied receiving the two letters.

This is not the first time that Channel 9, formerly NBTV, has run afoul of the ACB. It currently has a case pending in court following another suspension of its licence by the ACB in December last year over broadcasts that were found to be unacceptable. Lawyers for the television station then challenged the PM’s suspension of the licence and the matter is still to be determined in court.

Prior to that and also more recently, numerous complaints surfaced about the content of various programmes on the television station.

The ACB was set up to address public concerns about the inflammatory and offensive content on television stations. It is to be replaced by a broadcasting authority when the requisite legislation is approved.