Chairman’s Remarks – GNBA Third Stakeholder Engagement
PRESENTATION
CHAIRMAN OF THE GNBA BOARD, MR. LESLIE SOBERS
Fellow Members of the Governing Board of GNBA, Broadcasters, Journalists, Members of Staff of GNBA, good morning to you all. I take this opportunity to express my delight in welcoming to and addressing you at this Broadcasters’ engagement. Towards the end of last year I had indicated to you that this consultative effort would become a feature of the relationship between GNBA and Broadcasters and so here we are again engaging our Broadcasters quite to the contrary of certain Naysayers, who spuriously contended that the regulatory body in Guyana does not engage its major stakeholders
It is the intention of this Board, in keeping with that very undertaking, to have regular conversations and consultations with you as we strive to improve the Broadcast Landscape and the quality of information and information delivery to our citizens. I recognize that this is no easy task. It will require the diligent and earnest commitment of all of us in the Broadcasting Sector to share the common vision of becoming one of the best in our class and to gain the trust and confidence of our citizenry.
This collective effort and common vision has to embrace the desire to provide a service that enhances order and the public good, it is time that we move away from the old model of being profit oriented without invigorating local talent, local conversations, young enthusiasm, in other words local content. It is time that our Broadcasters recognize that Broadcasting can be a very powerful tool in evoking social change and as such Broadcasters must consider the quality of change to be effected.We have persons appearing on air who cannot speak properly, persons who peddle misinformation, television hosts who fail to control their interviewees, who can’t even conduct a proper interview or talk show and you will be shown some footage during the Monitoring Committee’s presentation which will corroborate what I am saying.
How do we turn around this situation? The answer I trust will come from you our Broadcasters. During the latter part of 2018 I represented Guyana on behalf of GNBA at the ITU Accessible America forum. Guyana’s efforts at creating information accessibility for persons with Disabilities paled in comparison with other countries.
I submitted my report to the Board and it was decided that we would approach our Broadcasters encouraging them to run closed captioning on some of their programmes especially the news and perhaps have signing at one major newscast per day to facilitate persons with hearing impairment, for a start. The following day a daily Newspaper put its own spin to the challenge thrown out saying Broadcasters were furious about GNBA springing this new requirement upon them.
Nothing is really new about efforts to include and consider PwD. The Persons with Disabilities Act, chapter 36:05 has been in existence since 2010 with penalties for non compliance; but a law has little effect if it is not enforced – it has greatest effect if the people for whom it was enacted embrace the objective of the law without external compulsion. Starting this year, We intend to publicly recognize Broadcasters who demonstrate that desired level of consciousness and are fully compliant and such recognition will not only be applauded but will have real value for the recipient.
If Guyana is to show any improvement on the index for accessibility to information our Broadcasters would have to take ownership of the vision and help make Guyana proud as a civilized nation should be. Recently there was a mischievous report purportedly taken from the 2019 Reporters without Borders (RSF) index on press freedom in countries worldwide. In that report there was reference to a “media regulatory authority” in Guyana. The GNBA regards this as a reference to the Authority and seeks to set the record straight.
First the GNBA is an Authority created by the Broadcasting Act passed by the Parliament of Guyana in 2011 Members of the governing board of GNBA are appointed by the President according to the Act but are not necessarily selected by the President indeed one member of the Board has a statutory place by virtue of his office and one member is nominated by the Leader of The Opposition. The other members are drawn from persons within the society at large who have relevant experience and who are of good report.
The report also mischievously contended that GNBA functions to deny Broadcasters freedom of Expression and was engaged in prosecutions, licence revocations and denial of licences to Broadcasting entities critical of the government. The GNBA calls out the RSF to point to a single instance between 2015 and 2019 where any media outlet was denied a Licence by the GNBA for Radio, Television or Cable Broadcasting or where and when the Licence of any Broadcasting entity was suspended or was subjected to prosecution.
The GNBA functions independently, as a non-partisan, impartial and professional body free of government intervention. The GNBA functions within the ambits of the broadcasting legislation and holds licenced broadcasters accountable for breaches of the Broadcasting Act especially with regard to the Broadcast Policy as set out by the Act. The Authority will continue to renew the licences of existing broadcasters, once you have honoured your obligations to the Authority; and will continue to issue Licences to persons who meet the criteria for being issued a Broadcasting Licence.
When a talk show host allows an uninformed guest to pontificate on conflict of interest with glaring uncertainty of the doctrine, or contend that sending letters pointing out infractions is a means of stifling freedom of expression, is partly indicative of the amount of work to be done. Expression is free, the electromagnetic spectrum is not. Guyanese are free to express their opinions and creative abilities in several forms but not to tarnish the reputation of citizens, provoke a breach of the peace, or annoy his/her neighbour.
Guyanese are free to communicate without interference, except by his own doing, which brings me to another point – you can’t open your lines on a call in Programme and consider an unsavory call interference or have it out with the caller, or issue an equally unsavory retort. Such conduct does not auger well for the development of Broadcasting in Guyana we therefore urge and will continue to urge our Broadcasters to hold yourselves to a higher standard, be aware, be organized, be ethical, be wise be the best.
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