The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A PROMINENT attorney has criticised the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority for demanding recordings of his client’s radio show for investigative purposes, calling it and the organisation’s general crackdown on broadcasters an “admission” by the regulator that it hasn’t been “doing its job.”

Wayne Munroe, QC, said URCA’s September 15 demand for recordings of Rodney Moncur’s show “Freedom March” which airs on ZSR 103.5 FM to determine if the station has contravened the authority’s Code of Practice for Content Regulation suggests that the regulator “may be kind of clueless” about its responsibility to govern the airwaves.

He asked: “Which rocket scientist regulating broadcasting determines that they will not record it?”

Mr Munroe said URCA’s demand is in effect a “disclosure” that it “hasn’t been doing its job up to September 2016 and counting,” and as such called on URCA to hire someone in its technical department “who could understand the needs that a regulator has to regulate content” and secure its own recordings.

The harsh words by Mr Munroe come on the heels of URCA’s announcement on Friday that it would be cracking down on audiovisual broadcasters because of an increase in broadcasting content that may have breached provisions of the Code of Practice for Content Regulation issued by the regulator on March 2, 2012.

The day before Friday’s announcement, URCA had given Navette Broadcasting & Entertainment Company Ltd., operator of ZSR 103.5 FM, an order to produce recordings of “Freedom March” because it was conducting an “URCA-initiated” investigation to determine if the station has contravened any provisions of the code.

URCA, in a letter that The Tribune has obtained, demanded that Navette Broadcasting provide it with copies of the recordings “of the entirety of the programme” broadcasted on ZSR 103.5 FM from September 5-9, no later than September 21.

“If URCA is doing its job I do not understand why they are not capturing themselves all broadcasting,” Mr Munroe said at his East Bay Street law office yesterday. “They seem to be telling us that they don’t have a clue what they’re supposed to be doing, because they’re asking the radio station for the content, then you could edit whatever you like.

“That seems to suggest that they may be kind of clueless and not realise that they should be recording for themselves and storing for a designated period all programming they are responsible for regulating.

“Which is why I say I’m not sure that they really know what they’re supposed to be doing, and if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing then I have concerns if you know how you’re supposed to be doing what you’re doing. It would boggle my mind that they are not recording all content and keeping it for a period.”

When contacted yesterday, URCA spokesperson Mavis Johnson-Collie said Friday’s announcement and consequent “crackdown” was not one that was provoked by any one individual or entity, but rather because it is conducting “appropriate monitoring exercises” of the sector.

“URCA in its role as the regulator for the sector wants to ensure that what is done is in compliance (with the code),” she said. “There is no targeting. We are monitoring and will continue to monitor based on the Act that gives us the authority to do so.”

However, Mr Munroe said URCA, via its letter, gave a “specific demand” for the recordings of Mr Moncur’s show, and as such raises questions over the regulator’s crackdown on the sector.

“They should not be asking any broadcaster for any content, because they ought to have it,” he said. “And this is what happens when you try to mess with people and you don’t realise what you are saying or what you are doing, (because) what this discloses, if they really need it, is URCA hasn’t been doing its job up to September 2016 and counting.”

Mr Munroe also said his client will “not go quietly anywhere and will not stand still while anybody attempts to abuse him.”

He added: “Any matter of freedom is a matter that I’m concerned with and it is very disturbing because we do not know who these folks are who are going to judge what is prevalent and acceptable in the Bahamas. It must be a wrong statement of the principle, because a lot of very bad things are prevalent and acceptable in the Bahamas, and that is the problem.”

According to URCA, providers of audiovisual media services in the Bahamas found in breach of the code are liable to sanctions in accordance with the Communications Act 2009, which may include a financial penalty, which may be up to 10 per cent of the content provider’s relevant turnover, and the suspension and/or revocation of the content provider’s license.