Veteran radio and television broadcaster Ron Robinson has been relieved of his duties as the Programme Manager at the State-run National Communications Network (NCN).
Veteran broadcaster, Ron Robinson
Robinson, who was on extended probation, told Guyana Times on Saturday that he received a letter from the entity’s Board of Directors on Thursday indicating that he was not confirmed for the position as Programme Manager and was told his last day would be Friday, January 6, 2016.
According to the veteran broadcaster, following his appointment back in May last year, he was placed on probation and in September, he was informed that the probation period would be extended to December 31, 2016.
However, instead of a confirmation letter, he was given a dismissal notice. While the letter did not state the reason behind the decision, he believes that it was a “personal” attack by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lennox Cornette.
“I believe it’s personal. The only person who could have made the recommendation to the Board was the CEO, Mr Cornette, so obviously he made the recommendation to the Board that I should not be confirmed and the Board acted on that,” Robinson posited.
NCN’s CEO, Lennox Cornette
Moreover, he asserted that the CEO may have an issue with him over his (Robinson’s) close friendship with former Deputy General Manager of GTT and now deceased, Terry Holder. Upon his appointment last year, Cornette was accused of forging Holder’s signature almost two decades ago while being employed with GTT.
Asked whether there were any incidents or confrontations between himself and Cornette during his time at NCN to give the CEO such an impression, Robinson said nothing came to mind.
However, he pointed out that there were several occasions when he was sidelined and victimised by the Head of the State-run television network. “I know there were a couple of occasions when at management meetings and even at the final staff meeting for last year, I was overlooked by the CEO with regards to my input,” he noted.
Robinson said it was only after another staffer would indicate to the CEO that Robinson was left out that he would be allowed to speak at those forums, otherwise he was sidelined.
For these reasons, among others, Robinson said he believes resulted in his sacking from the State Broadcasting Network. He went on to state that another issue that may have led to his dismissal was his vocal disapproval of management’s decision to remove NCN’s anchor Natasha Smith from air because of her pregnancy.
According to Robinson, he disagreed with the manner in which the situation was dealt with by management.
Back in August, Cornette had come under fire after Smith had disclosed in a statement that she was informed by a senior manager of the State-owned entity that she would be relieved of her duties as Anchor. The broadcast journalist pointed out that it was shortly after this that she was made aware that the reason for the decision was because she was unmarried and pregnant.
This issue has caused much public outraged, especially within the media fraternity and particularly from the Guyana Press Association (GPA). However, NCN has since denied claims that Smith was pulled from the set due to her pregnancy, with the CEO claiming that he was misrepresented by management, which was proved by minutes from the meeting in question. Nevertheless, he was later ordered by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who has oversight of Government-owned media entities, to apologise to Smith, who was subsequently reinstated.
Meanwhile, Robinson told Guyana Times that he felt the decision to relieve him of his duties was “unjustifiable” since it was personal and not based on his work. He further posited that it was felt that he was a threat to the CEO since he (Robinson) shared a close relationship with staff members.
Nevertheless, Robinson noted that he is being considered for a training consultant position at NCN, but is torn as to whether he would take it. “I am between a rock and a hard place because I don’t know, if I go back there, what I will encounter. I don’t want to go back and treated the same way again and then I’ll have to leave again,” he posited.
