A decision will be made next week on whether Chandra Narine Sharma’s licence to broadcast will be suspended for a minimum of six months. At a media briefing on July 29, President Jagdeo noted that he is yet to decide what action would be taken.
Preident Bharrat Jagdeo
However, he said there seems to be a “clever plot” by the owners of CNS Channel Six, the station that has been at the centre of controversy following a commentary aired by Anthony Vieira, which according to the head of state incited disunity among religions.
Jagdeo said that at no time did he ask Sharma to pull “Keeping Them Honest”, a talk show programme hosted by attorney-at-law and chartered accountant Christopher Ram, from the channel’s programming.
Instead, the president said, it was Sharma’s wife, Savitri Sharma, who called him from an overseas number asking for mercy.
“A week ago, or less than a week, late at night, I got a call from Mrs Sharma saying to me if they were to remove the Christopher Ram programme and transfer the licence from Sharma’s name to her name whether they would avoid sanctions,” he revealed.
The president stated that under no circumstances was he willing to be part of that.
Chandra Narine Sharma
“… whether that would be okay with me. I said to her clearly, this is not a negotiation, I have never seen the Christopher Ram programme.” Jagdeo declared that the matter before him is clear, and he will be considering only the recommendation placed before him by the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB), which suggested that Sharma’s licence should be suspended for a period of not less than six months.
The president stated that Sharma’s wife accused him of being too harsh. “She was crying and saying I was too harsh and all of that… that was the end of that. I said you will hear from me with a letter.” It was after the calls made by Sharma’s wife that articles were published suggesting that the president or other influential persons asked Sharma to remove the Christopher Ram programme from the air.
“I then realised that this was all a smokescreen — the call to me to move the issue away from the transgression and recommendation from the ACB for a long- term suspension to this issue about press freedom and government trying to interfere and tell them what programmes they must take off… so that should I agree to their [plan]… then they would blame it on us, saying that we didn’t like the programme… it was a clever plot generated by Sharma,” Jagdeo remarked.
Additionally, the head of state expressed disappointment in members of the diplomatic corps, and pointed specifically to those from embassies who in the past were invited to several press briefings on the Sharma issue.
When asked what his likely decision is, the head of state said he could not give a hint, but his decision would be released next week.
The ACB recommended the sanction after the airing of a programme that was pre-recorded on Channel Six, featuring Anthony Vieira. It was alleged that, on May 4, 2011 on Channel Six, Vieira alleged that a religious leader had told President Jagdeo to remove a channel which aired programmes about another religion. President Jagdeo contends that Vieira’s comments were intended to create inter- and intra-religious disputes.
