|
– government not budgingThe Guyana Press Association (GPA) yesterday joined media owners in calling for the lifting of the four-month ban placed on CNS TV Channel Six,Cheap Jerseys Outlet, but the government signaled no intention to budge on the request.GPA President, Gordon Moseley, went further,Cheap NBA Jerseys Wholesale, calling for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to intervene.“Allow me to take this opportunity to urge GECOM to play a meaningful role in the issue concerning the closure of CNS TV6,Wholesale Football Jerseys,” Moseley said at the opening of a workshop for journalists on elections coverage and the media code of conduct for the coverage of the upcoming general elections.Gordon Moseley, GPA President“Your organisation as a collective,Wholesale NFL China Jerseys, and in particular its Chairman, cannot be advocates of a Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) while at the same time turn a blind eye to the silencing of a media house in an election period by the suspension of its license,Cheap NFL Jerseys China,” Moseley stated.Opposition political parties and rights activists have flayed President Bharrat Jagdeo for abusing his authority in imposing the suspension, but the government’s chief spokesman, Dr Roger Luncheon, yesterday maintained the government’s hard-line position on the issue.“The GPA not only endorses the call by the Guyana Media Proprietors Association for the lifting of the suspension but urges GECOM to consider the action against CNSTV 6 as a ‘monitor-able’ one by the MMU in the context of shutting out access to the media,” Moseley added.Luncheon said there was no basis for the negative reaction on the decision to sanction the station.He said the owners of the station had acknowledged that they were in breach of the law and further it was one of the station’s owner who had suggested the four-month suspension as a penalty.It was the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) that had recommended the suspension of CNS TV 6 owing to the airing of a commentary by opposition Parliamentarian Anthony Vieira on May 4.In the commentary, Vieira had claimed that Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission, Bishop Juan Edghill, was doing nothing to safeguard Catholics in a dispute with Protestants. President Jagdeo had said that the comments were reprehensible to the constitution as it sought to sow discord among different denominations of Christians.Edghill had moved to the courts to seek redress,NFL Jerseys Clearance, and Sharma had apologized.Activists against the ban say the President could have used his discretion in the matter given that Sharma had apologized and also given that Edghill had sought the intervention of the court.Dr Luncheon dismissed as “diatribe” the statements by Opposition Leader Robert Corbin on the issue.Corbin has accused the President of providing misinformation to the Guyanese public,Wholesale Cheap Jerseys, but Luncheon said it is Corbin who has sought to frustrate the work of the ACB.Since 2003, Corbin sought to get the President to remove the opposition nominee on the ACB – a nomination which was made by the then Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte.International press freedom watchdog, Reporters without Borders, has called the suspension by Jagdeo “appalling.” |
|