His Excellency Mr. Donald Ramotar
President of the Republic of Guyana
Office of the President
Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive
Bourda, Georgetown
11th June 2013,
Dear Sir,
Re. Opposition access to the National Communications Network (NCN)
Further to our informal discussion on the issue above, the Alliance For Change (AFC) hereby brings to
your attention areas of serious concern regarding the operation of NCN.NCN’s news coverage is appallingly biased in favour of the government and its radio and television stations consistently refuse to convey to the public the views of the opposition political parties along with their supporting rationale.
�� The elected representatives who appear and share their views on NCN’s various programs are
almost exclusively from the minority governing political party.
�� NCN routinely broadcasts programs in which lengthy presentations of pro-government positions
are made without any opportunity for contrasting views to be expressed.
�� NCN has on several occasions refused to carry paid political advertisements from the AFC.
�� NCN has on several occasions refused to carry other paid programs from the AFC.
We believe that the state media, where it exists, has a duty to provide accurate and complete
information to the citizens of the state, and that in this regard NCN is woefully deficient. This
deficiency can do irreparable harm to the country by undermining the credibility of the State and
discriminating against sections of the population by denying them access to their political
representatives via the state media. It also adds to the perception that Guyana is not yet a full-fledged
functioning democracy. Further, we feel that such misuse of the State media undermines any
improvement in relations between the parliamentary political parties.
With this in mind, we are attaching a list of measures which we would like to see implemented in order
to correct these glaring deficiencies. We ask that you treat this as urgent. We further recommend a
comprehensive reform of the state media following meaningful consultations with a broader crosssection
of stake holders. The AFC is ready to work with all stakeholders in order to ensure that the citizens of Guyana are better served by the state media.
Yours sincerely
David Patterson
General Secretary
Measures to be urgently addressed regarding the operation of NCN
1. NCN, in keeping with good journalism practices, must afford the political opposition the right-ofreply
to all statements, allegations or references made with regard to those parties, their
leaders, their views and their actions.
2. NCN, in recognition of the will of the people of Guyana, must immediately make available at
least one hour of free, live airtime to each parliamentary political party every week.
3. NCN must also immediately make available at least one hour of paid airtime to each political
party every week.
4. The Boards of Directors of NCN and other state media must be changed to reflect a broader
cross-section of our society and include persons nominated by the political opposition.
5. NCN must make available its recorded footage of parliamentary debates to members of the
public and other media houses for use as they see fit. This need not be free of cost.
6. The full implementation of UNESCO’s Best Practices Source Book for Public Service Broadcasting
This list is by no means exhaustive and merely represents a few corrective measures that the AFC feels
can easily be implemented as a sign of good faith by the Government pending a comprehensive reform
of state media organizations.
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