'Unfair and unjust' - Nationwide fires back at Broadcasting Commission in Raga dispute
Published:Wednesday | March 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
The management of Nationwide News Network (NNN) is crying foul over the decision of the Broadcasting Commission to order it to pull the plug on the popular afternoon talk show 'Ragashanti Live'.
While airing a rebroadcast of the programme yesterday, head of NNN, Cliff Hughes, said the station had pulled Ragashanti in keeping with the dictates of the Broadcasting Commission but did so under protest.
According to Hughes: "The directive of the Broadcasting Commission did not give us any reasonable amount of time to adjust our schedule or to honour our commercial obligations to our clients and you, our listeners."
He noted that Nationwide was given less than 24 hours to pull the programme hosted by Dr Kingsley 'Ragashanti' Stewart.
Hughes also charged that the commission did not give NNN a fair chance to respond to the allegations of content breaches.
Regulatory arrogance
"Nationwide 90 FM is pursuing all options available to us to fight this unlawful, unfair, unjust, unconstitutional and unacceptable level of regulatory arrogance and blatant disregard for the commercial needs and challenges of a business such as ours ... ." Hughes declared.
On Monday, the Broadcasting Commission ordered NNN to pull the popular broadcaster based on what it said were numerous public complaints over the last two months and following its review of the programme during the period February 7 to March 2, 2011.
"The host of 'Ragashanti Live' was found to regularly engage in and encourage callers to voice scandalous, derogatory and insulting remarks which, according to the regulations, should not be transmitted from any sound broadcasting facilities of radio licensees at any time," the commission said.
Yesterday, Cordell Green, executive director of the commission, rejected the criticisms from NNN.
He argued that the commission was fair and just in its handling of the issue.
"The commission has been proven time and again to be deliberate and prudent in its decisions," Green told The Gleaner.
"The commission does not act arbitrarily. It acts after careful deliberation and sound legal advice and we are satisfied that the authority the commission has exercised is grounded in law."
According to Green, the decisions of the commission can be challenged in court but he would be very surprised if any judicial body would disagree with the action taken against NNN.
Green said the commission had met with the management of Nationwide on March 3 and given it until March 11 to file a response to the allegations.
"I will not tell you now what was their response, but any reasonable person who reads the transcript or who is honest about the nature of the programme will admit that it is incongruent with the Nationwide public service broadcast licence and inconsistent with the Children's Code for programming," Green argued.