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Ingraham suggests PLP conflict By Candia Dames ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com: Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham yesterday pointed to what he views as a double standard as it regards the Progressive Liberal Party's position on the recent broadcast rules published by the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA). "What I find interesting is that one week the leader of the PLP says that URCA's rules on broadcasting during election time are unconstitutional, that his party will not follow or abide by them. And the next week...the same party is now saying we are in breach of those so-called unconstitutional rules, which is it?," asked Ingraham during an interview with The Nassau Guardian. Regarding URCA's "Interim Code of Practice for Political Broadcasts", PLP leader Perry Christie said at a recent rally that the PLP roundly condemns it and completely rejects it. "We do so, firstly, because URCA did not carry out the kind of public consultation that the law requires them to carry out before a code of this kind can be promulgated. They never carried out any, or any sufficient, consultation on this whole matter of how or even if political broadcasting should be regulated. Because of that failure, the code that URCA issued is fatally flawed as a matter of law. That is what all our lawyers have advised us. They tell us that this Interim Code was dead at birth." But on Sunday, the PLP's coordinator for the Elizabeth by-election campaign, Dr. Bernard Nottage, said the party demands equal treatment from the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas under the URCA Code. The PLP insists that the corporation violated the code when it aired the prime minister's national address last week. But the corporation's general manager Edwin Lightbourn disagreed and rejected the PLP's request for equal airtime for the Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie to respond to Ingraham. However, Lightbourn said the corporation decided at this time not to re-air the prime minister's address. In response to the corporation's decision not to rebroadcast his address, Ingraham said yesterday, "This is a very independent society and I am elated to know that ZNS is able to on its volition and accord decide when it will carry the prime minister's address. That's unheard of in the Bahamas. Democracy is really here, blooming." Referring to his address, Ingraham said, "I've been doing this for the last 12 years now. What has been the issue over the last 12 years? I'm the prime minister of The Bahamas. I'm entitled to make political broadcasts if I choose as leader of the FNM (Free National Movement). The rules say that. I don't choose to do that. I choose to make a national address. If the people of The Bahamas don't want me to make a national address I guess I'll hear from them." Ingraham said he had not been informed about the corporation's decision prior to it being communicated to the PLP. "All I know about this is what I have read in your newspaper. ZNS has not spoken to me or anybody else," he said. "I give an annual address to the nation every year I've been in office with the exception of one year...It was always in January. The last time it was January 29. This time it's February 4. My national address has nothing to do with whether it's an election or not. I always account to the population of The Bahamas. The fact that it wasn't happening by the other side is another matter." Christie has said URCA's Interim Code must be withdrawn at once and if it is not withdrawn it must be made the subject of civil disobedience by all the radio and television stations and by all the political parties. "We in the PLP will be doing just that," the PLP leader said. "We have no intention of submitting to the URCA code. It is unlawful and therefore will be defied. It is unconstitutional and will therefore be repudiated."
Wednesday February 10, 2010 |
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