Aug 2008 Financial News

OCM 'taking a very close look'

Aug 05, 2008

Senior executives of the One Caribbean Media Limited (OCM), the group that owns CCN TV6, are scheduled today to hold the first of several meetings to outline OCM's position on the new draft Broadcast Code released by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) yesterday.

The new draft code was published in the Express, which is also owned by OCM.

In an interview with the Express yesterday, OCM chief executive officer Dr Terrence Farrell said OCM and other local television and radio station owners had been aware of the draft prior to its release to the public yesterday and are examining it in detail.

"It does have some important implications for the industry, I think," Farrell said.

He said TV6 general manager Shida Bolai attended a meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) last week to discuss the new draft broadcast code.

"We are taking a very close look at it. We would be sending our comments to the TATT on it before the deadline (for public comments on August 29). We would also be channelling certain comments through the TTPBA as well. There would be an industry position as well as a company position," Farrell said.

He recalled the TTPBA did express its views on the first draft Broadcast Code published for public comment in 2005.

At that time, the TTPBA said of the first draft, "Under the current proposed code, from what we have seen so far, there would be a host of programmes and even news items that would be censored."

The TTPBA had referred the first draft to its attorneys.

In an interview yesterday TATT senior manager legal and regulatory affairs, Stephen Bereaux, said the new draft Broadcast Code and the one published in 2005 came about as a result of extensive consultations with broadcast stakeholders, including the TTPBA.

Also contacted for comment yesterday, Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Wade Mark, said: "The (Opposition) party is studying this latest incursion into media rights and media freedoms and will be studying this code in-depth and will be making an appropriate statement shortly"


Source:
Trinidad Express
Tuesday 5 August, 2008
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161360099