The Tribune

THE time has come. There have been recent press reports about the tens of millions of dollars that the Bahamian people have been losing on their investment in ZNS. I am convinced that if the people, who pay for all these losses, were asked whether they wanted to keep this investment, they would say no, sell it and sell it now! So why is this loss being forced on the poor taxpayers of the nation year after year after year? There are many good reasons for ZNS to be privatised even if it were profitable. Not the least of which is that each opposition has accused each government of unfairly using their influence over ZNS to gain political advantage. Most democratic countries have very liberal policies with respect to broadcast television so should encourage more players to enter the business. This is just what we in the Bahamas have done with radio. The public education needs of the Government can be satisfied by each licensee being required to provide the Government information establishment with a certain amount of time, as a condition of their new license or renewal, to meet the needs of informing the public. Rather than making the indisputable case for the sale of ZNS, maybe I should just ask the question, what good reason is there for the people of the Bahamas to own a broadcast television station? Even more so, one which is consistently losing money.