Radio licences were granted in accordance with Broadcast Act – Dr Luncheon

Amid the furore regarding the recent issuance of radio licences, Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon explained that not just any individual could be granted a radio licence. This facility is reserved for those who must be deemed fit, proper and financial sufficient.

The Cabinet secretary made this remark at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday at the Office of the President, while responding to a question regarding the criteria used to issue radio licences.

“I want to believe as you pointed out, if the Guyana National Broadcast Authority was in place, they would have had to follow those prescriptions in the Act which deal with one: you have to be fit and proper; that means it is not any Laboo baboo could be so honoured, and two: that you must have financial means.

No one gives you a license for you now to go shopping and doing the different hawking, that I am told happens in some other industries to get finances or to send to reap some immediate reward,” the Cabinet secretary remarked.

He added that the issuance of radio licences recently by the president was done in accordance with the pro vision in the Broadcast Act.

“Those two considerations are primary, and then, of course, the technical skills and requirements that allow you to obtain spectrum and access spectrum. I am pretty certain that those considerations weighed on the president when the decisions were being made.

“There is, of course, the requirement, even though notional, that these people, these entities would have made applications, and when the ruling of the court was made in that context to deliberate and to examine these applications, that that ruling and its implications also had an influence on the decisions that were made,” Dr Luncheon stated.

Government last week revealed the names of some persons and entities that received radio licences. Among them were Singer; Rudy Grant; electronics dealer Maxwell Thom; National Television Network (NTN); Television Guyana (TVG) Channel 28; Graham (Region 10); Alfro Alphonso and Sons; Community Radio (Region One); New Guyana; and a Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Sub-District in Region One.

Since then, there has been much talk in one section of the media about those who secured the licences, as against those who were denied licences. In an article appearing Meanwhile, when asked by the media about the claims that “friends of the government” were the pri mary recipients of the radio licences, Dr Luncheon had this to say: “If government friends are financially se cure, if they have the technical means and fit and proper… I can’t imagine they would not over populate the list of recipients.”