The time has come for deregulation of Radio in Guyana

The Stabroek News on Tuesday January 5^th, 2010 reported in an article Draft Bill under Review that the Honorable Prime Minister Mr. Samuel Hinds appeared on a popular talk show and discussed among other things that his Government is currently in the process of reviewing the final draft of the Broadcast Bill. To the inattentive ear this indeed sounds splendid. But to the many Guyanese who pay careful attention to the many developments or lack thereof in Guyana will know that this particular Bill and its not too distant relative that deals with the enactment of Copyright Laws seem to have found themselves on the shelves of the Guyanese Parliament gathering dust as time passes.

A few days ago the first decade of the millennium ended. It’s almost a decade since work began on creating broadcast legislation for Guyana. Seven years have passed since the first official draft of the Broadcast Bill was made available on 25^th July, 2003. An examination of the draft broadcast legislation would reveal a logical, carefully constructed piece of legislation that provides a solid foundation on which the guidelines for broadcasting in Guyana can emanate.

Because of the limitations of space in a Letter Column, I will not provide explicit details on what resides in the bill but will, in brevity, share some of what the seven sections of the bill proposes.

The draft broadcast bill that was circulated begins with a Preliminary section that deals with the Definition of Terms to be used in the bill along with the perceived interpretations of concepts as deemed necessary. The second section is labeled Broadcasting Authority in which there is sufficient information about how to set up such an authority, its responsibilities, functions and the policies that will govern it. General Provisions for Licensing make up the third and fourth section of this draft bill and outlines quite clearly the general and other requirements that applicants need to possess should they think of applying for a license to broadcast. This second part of this section clearly provides an outline of eligibility and Issuance of License. It also deals with the issue of License transfer, rules for programming, rules for advertising, ministerial role in licensing services and a host of other stringent guidelines.

Payment and Recovery of Fees is the heading of the fifth section and focuses on the guidelines for the payment of fees, and other financial guidelines regarding how the established broadcast authority treats with applicants and fees. The sixth section deals with Penalties. This section states categorically the penalties for broadcasting without a license and penalties for other offenses which I believe should read as [any other related offences]. The seventh and final section is labeled Miscellaneous and deals with a number of contingency issues ranging from Broadcasting of corrections and apologies, etc, production of documents and inspection to general regulations.

This draft received much scrutiny by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), concerned citizens and even the Opposition Parties. Pertinent recommendations have been made and still there seems to be reluctance by the government to have this Bill properly amended, tabled, debated and passed in Parliament. The time that the Honorable Prime Minister indicated that is still needed to put things in place smacks of political bureaucratic plodding.

There have been a number of bills that have flown through the Guyanese Parliament with dizzying speed that one wonders why very serious legislations like the Broadcast Bill which will ensure ground breaking deregulation in the commercial radio sector in Guyana and Copyright Laws which will guarantee our artists and people of talent protection for their work seem to find the insolence of the powers that be.

Let me remind readers of a few Bills that were passed in the Guyanese Parliament with great expediency. They are the Appropriation Bill in 2005, the Regional Health Authorities Bill, the Valuation for Rating Purposes (Amendment) Bill, the Valued-Added Tax Bill 2005, the Excise Tax Bill 2005, Guyana Energy Agency (Amendment) Bill 2005, CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality Bill 2005, the National Registration (Amendment) Bill 2005 and the Geographical Indications Bill 2005 and who can forget the contentious Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Bill of 2006 which literally legalizes Casino gambling in Guyana. It is indeed strange that such an important bill such as the broadcast legislation is not being attended to with a higher degree of expediency.

Deregulation occurred in the Newspaper sector just about 24 years ago when the Stabroek News began printing as the first private commercially available newspaper in Guyana. The Kaieteur News and the Guyana Times have all entered into a deregulated industry. Why a decade after the new millennium, Guyana still has one radio station? This is unacceptable in a Democracy!

The government has had more than enough time to iron out all the issues concerning broadcast legislation in Guyana. There ought to be no more excuses with regard to the passage of this legislation in Parliament.

The time for deregulation of radio has come!