A letter signed by Tyrone James, the New Democratic Party\u2019s General Secretary, was dispatched to Dionne John in her capacity as General Manager of the National Broadcasting Corporation in protest of what appears to be deliberate efforts to deny NDP President and duly appointed Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday access to NBC\u2019s broadcasting resources.
\nThe August 7 communique lamented the fact that \u201cDr. Friday has requested access to the national radio station [NBC Radio705] to communicate to the nation on matters of public interest and importance. He has still not been allowed such access. Indeed, it is noticeable that NBC 705 does not even attend Dr. Friday\u2019s media conferences, despite invitations to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter also chronicled attempts \u201cto address the matter\u201d by NDP\u2019s Public Relations Officer Laverne King. These efforts included \u201cseveral messages\u201d that were left at the radio station \u201cabout two months ago\u201d by PRO King.<\/p>\n
According to James, these messages were not acknowledged. \u201cShe then visited the station to discuss the matter and enquired if slots were available in the month of July. She was informed that all slots were booked out. After further discussion, she was told that someone would get back to her within two weeks. No one did.\u201d<\/p>\n
James was also moved to remind the station\u2019s General Manager of the constitutional validity of Dr. Friday\u2019s office as Opposition Leader as he tabled another request for access.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Leader of the Opposition is a constitutional position in our system of government. As the person holding that position for the time being, Dr. Friday has a responsibility to address the nation on matters of public interest and importance. Accordingly, he is requesting a weekly slot on the national radio station, NBC Radio 705.\u201d<\/p>\n
We reached out to Colvin Harry, NBC Radio\u2019s Progamme Manager, who opted \u201cnot to speak about that at the moment.\u201d However, he acknowledged receipt of James\u2019 missive and intimated that his management team was \u201cin the process of going through\u201d the letter. Though, he said, \u201cI\u2019m not sure if anybody else would be willing to comment on it; at least not at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is currently allotted at least 2 hours every Wednesday morning as he delivers weekly updates to the station\u2019s Morning Cup listeners and viewers via its Facebook live stream. That show is also hosted by Colvin Harry.<\/p>\n
A similar situation was recently resolved in another Eastern Caribbean jurisdiction when the St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party threatened to bring legal action against \u201cthe government and state-run ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation for infringing on the rights of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the SKN Labour Party accused the state owned media outlet of \u201ccontravening their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and the right to be protected from discrimination.\u201d
\nIn an unprecedented move ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation responded by allocating \u201cequal air time to all to each registered political party ahead of the St. Kitts and Nevis general elections,\u201d LoopNewsCaribbean.com reported.<\/p>\n
JP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A letter signed by Tyrone James, the New Democratic Party\u2019s General Secretary, was dispatched to Dionne John in her capacity as General Manager of the National Broadcasting Corporation in protest of what appears to be deliberate efforts to deny NDP President and duly appointed Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday access to NBC\u2019s broadcasting resources. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-mainstory"],"yoast_head":"\n