| Two challenges have been filed in the High Court against the granting of radio frequencies by then President Bharrat Jagdeo in November 2011.Broadcaster Enrico Woolford, the National Media and Publishing Company (publishers of Kaieteur News) and the Guyana Media Proprietors Association are asking that the High Court quash Jagdeo’s decision.Both challenges were filed in the High Court yesterday.In the first challenge, broadcaster Enrico Woolford is asking the High Court to declare that President Bharrat Jagdeo’s granting of radio licences was “arbitrary,Cheap Air Max 90, unconstitutional, unlawful,Cheap NFL Jerseys, unfair, unreasonable, capricious, irrational,Cheap China Jerseys, procedurally improper, ultra vires, null, void and of no legal effect.”Attorney General Anil Nandlall is named as a respondent in the case to show why the court should not quash the decision made by Jagdeo.The second named defendant is Valmiki Singh of the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU), the authority which assigns frequencies.It was recently revealed that Jagdeo, in the very month he was leaving the Office of the President,cheap nfl jerseys discount, granted five radio frequencies to his best friend Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop; the company which publishes the newspaper of the ruling party; and Telcor,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, which has as its directors Ruth Baljit, the sister of Minister Robert Persaud, and Kamini Persaud, who is the niece of Jagdeo and wife of Minister Robert Persaud.One frequency each was granted to seven other companies.In the proceedings, Woolford claims that Jagdeo had signed an agreement with then Opposition Leader Robert Corbin in May 2003, saying that no broadcast licences would be issued until the new broadcasting legislation comes into effect.However,Wholesale NFL Jerseys China, Jagdeo went ahead and granted those new frequencies almost one year before the broadcasting act came into being. The Broadcast Act came into being at the end of August, 2012.Woolford is claiming that he applied for radio broadcast frequencies in October 1997. However, he claimed he never received a response from the NFMU.In documents filed in the court, Woolford claimed that the sole and predominant purpose of issuing 15 frequencies to three companies was done to ensure “overcrowding the radio spectrum” and to ensure that the Broadcast Authority would find it easy to refuse applicants.Woolford stated that Kaieteur News, Stabroek News and Capitol News have for several years prior to the granting of the licences, criticised the government for human rights violations and breaches of the rule of law The three named media houses applied for FM Radio Broadcasting frequencies but none of them got any.In the second challenge filed in the High Court, National Media and Publishing Company, publishers of Kaieteur News, and the Guyana Media Proprietors’ Association have asked the court to make a declaration that the granting of those radio licences was done under improper considerations and was discriminatory, unconstitutional and of no legal effect.The action by the Media Proprietors Association is also against those who were granted cable licences by Jagdeo, namely his friend Brian Yong and the ruling party’s associate Vishok Persaud.Those filing the second challenge claim that for sixteen months after the allotment of the radio licences, the names of the persons who were granted licences “remained a dark secret within the bosom of President Jagdeo until the Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, was obliged to do so in the National Assembly. |
