GEORGETOWN (CMC):The owner of a private television station in Guyana will today go to the high court challenging a decision made by President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday to suspend his licence for four months.
Chandra Narine Sharma, owner of CNS Channel 6, was slapped with the four-month suspension last Friday for rebroadcasting a programme first aired in February three times where a woman had called in on a live programme threatening to kill Jagdeo if any of her children was hurt in the current crime wave.
There has been widespread condemnation for the action by Jagdeo who has been at odds with the local media fraternity here for the past three years. Sharma told reporters on Saturday night that public support and the loyalty of his staff have strengthened his resolve to fight the decision and he is prepared for a battle in the local courts.
Jagdeo, in a letter on Friday, ordered Sharma to close down his station at midnight and he complied. A fierce critic of the Jagdeo administration and himself the leader of the political party Justice For All, Sharma said he was shocked by the decision.
Committed infringements
Jagdeo said on Friday that Sharma was found to have committed serious infringements of the conditions of the licence by broadcasting, on four occasions, inclu-ding three rebroadcasts, content that advocated his killing.
He said as the minister of communications, he was the sole authority vested with power to decide whether a licensee had breached the terms and conditions of his or her licence and whether any sanctions may be imposed.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Press Association (GPA) said in a statement it "regretted and un-equivocally condemned" the decision by the president to suspend the licence of CNS TV 6 for four months.
The association said due process had been violated and sacrificed at the altar of political expediency and self-interest, rather than opting for an enlightened and transparent approach, the GPA said.
"To the best of our knowledge, the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting never recommended to Jagdeo that CNS TV 6's licence be suspended or cancelled because of the broadcast of the offending remarks," the association said.
