President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced a temporary lifting of the four-month suspension of the broadcast licence of Chandra Narine Sharma’s CNS Channel Six, which had become effective on October 3.
President Bharrat Jagdeo
He said this action was taken to “take away any excuse they have to create violence and enmity, or to boycott the elections.” At the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) rally in Kitty, President Jagdeo, the minister with portfolio responsibility for information, said he would lift the suspension for two months and have it take effect on December 1.
Following Channel Six’s sign-off at 18:00h on October 3, vigils and public meetings were held at various places, with opposition and civil society figures calling for the station’s return on air.
President Jagdeo had slammed those calls, saying that the opposition parties were using the issue as an excuse to boycott the elections.
“They have seen the writing on the wall that it is going to be another overwhelming PPP/Civic victory, so they talking about boycott and they saying that the results might be tainted, that it wouldn’t be a fair election,” said Jagdeo to resounding applause and cheers from the crowd.
Now that a date has been set for elections, Jagdeo wants to ensure that there is no cause for violence, enmity or a boycott.
“Some time ago, I said I want to remove any excuse that these people have for another resounding defeat; because they would be defeated, defeated massively – all of them combined – by this PPP/Civic government.”
Chandra Narine Sharma
Chandra Narine Sharma came under scrutiny and criticism for airing a pre-recorded commentary on May 4, 2011, in which Anthony Vieira made remarks suggesting that President Jagdeo and a Hindu priest were involved in a “conspiracy” to remove a Christian programme from the airwaves.
There were also remarks made by Sharma which allegedly slandered the character of Bishop Juan Edghill.
“Last week, I suspended CN Sharma on the basis of a report that came to me from the ACB. He was being suspended not because he criticised Edghill, but because the broadcast on his station was to spread enmity, racism, and religious hate between Hindus and Christians,” Jagdeo told the crowd.
Jagdeo had announced the suspension after the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB), having investigated a complaint from Bishop Edghill, found that Sharma was in breach of his broadcast licence, and had recommended to the president that Sharma’s licence be suspended for no less than six months.
“Sharma came and he was crying like a baby… He run his big mouth on TV and “Voice of the People” and all this nonsense. He was crying, begging to lower it, and so I did. I lowered it, but I made it clear to him what he was being suspended for,” Jagdeo told the rally.
Sharma has since refuted claims that he begged for a reduction of his suspension.
This recent is the third suspension Channel Six has had to endure for breaches of the terms and conditions governing its licence.
The station’s broadcast was taken off air for one month in 2005 for airing what was said to be false information.
In April 2008, the licence was again suspended, then for four months for re-airing a programme in which a caller threatened President Jagdeo if any of her children were hurt in the crime wave occurring at that time.
Sharma was warned by the ACB about the broadcast, but the programme was, nevertheless, rebroadcast.
Meanwhile, PPP/C presidential candidate Donald Ramotar said that Jagdeo’s decision to suspend the penalty was just another glaring example of the concessions that the government has been making to the opposition.
“And although the opposition is trying to misrepresent what happened in the Sharma case, I want to congratulate the president for …. giving Sharma the opportunity; giving him and the opposition, who claim openly that Sharma is their station – they have declared that Channel Six is an opposition station… a fair chance at contesting the elections,” Ramotar said.
Meanwhile, APNU presidential candidate David Granger told Guyana Times International that he welcomes the move to lift the suspension of CNS Channel Six until after elections, but he is not fully satisfied.
This matter, he said, should have been dealt with in the courts, if CNS Channel Six has breached the law and committed libel.
AFC Parliamentarian David Patterson, speaking on behalf of his party, said that the AFC is satisfied with the move by the president to lift the ban.
