Dear Editor,
Notice has been taken of a press statement from the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, purporting falsehoods concerning coverage of the 2023 Budget Debates by NCN.
This type of deliberate misinformation-peddling by Mr. Norton and the wider Opposition camp with regards to coverage of the Opposition is nothing new, and in fact has become an entrenched pattern.
In its most recent statement, Mr. Norton’s office claims that coverage was not provided to Opposition
Members of Parliament during the debates for Budget 2023. On the contrary, the record shows that the budget presentations of all thirty-one Members of the Opposition who spoke during the recently concluded debates were broadcast ‘unedited’, with a total airtime of about 949 minutes, or 15.8 hours.
In addition to the broadcast of those presentations, 26 stories specific to Budget 2023 and which featured
Members of the Opposition, were prominent in the news during that period.
Further, NCN has provided, and continues to provide, coverage to press conferences hosted by the Leader of the Opposition.
It should be noted that, on several occasions across normal news cycles, NCN was prevented from providing coverage to activities involving the Leader of the Opposition and APNU + AFC. On November 6, 2022, two NCN cameramen who were on official duty were attacked and intimidated in Mocha by a prominent member of Mr. Norton’s team.
In May of the same year in Linden, the NCN team covering a walk-about by the Opposition Leader at
Amelia’s Ward was attacked by members of Mr. Norton’s delegation.
During the National Toshaos Conference in July, 2022, a camera-operator who arrived to give coverage to the Opposition’s reception for Toshaos at Woolford Avenue was turned away by Mr. Aubrey Norton.
In another instance, a reporter was verbally attacked when a question was posed to the Leader of the
Opposition during one of his press conferences.
These scenarios expose what can only be seen as a calculated strategy by the Leader of the Opposition and the APNU + AFC camps to intimidate the state media, undermine its credibility, and create an environment of hostility towards its operatives, who are legitimate members of the Fourth Estate.
The table below reflects coverage of budget debates over the years.
NCN Budget Debates Coverage
Opposition Coverage PPPC
News Stories Broadcast of Budget Speeches
2016 3 0
2017 2 0
2018 4 0
Total 9 0
Oppoisition Coverage APNU + AFC
2020 10 31
2021 13 31
2022 16 30
2023 26 31
Total 65 123
Sincerely,
National
Communications
Network Inc
