Following a front page story in today’s Kaieteur News that singled out the state-owned NCN 98.1 and the privately owned HJ 94.1 as being two stations facing closure soon over non-compliance, both stations are denying the report and say they are compliant with the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority.

In a statement, the Board of NCN said the company takes its financial obligations to the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) very seriously and the company is currently up-to-date on all 2017 fees owed to the GBNA for all three of our radio stations.

“We regret this move by Kaieteur News to publish false information about our financial standing without seeking a comment from us for clarity. We expect nothing less than an apology as prominent as the false headline on their front page”, the NCN Board insisted.

The company also advised the GNBA “to be circumspect when sharing sensitive information”, since it is widely known that Kaieteur News was recently awarded their own license for radio broadcasting.

The privately owned Hits and Jams 94.1FM in a statement of its own said it is also up to date with its payments and as far as the company knows, it is “not listed among stations to be taken off air very soon”, as indicated by the Kaieteur News story.

The company said it has noted various instances of attacks on the business and “deeply regret this move by Kaieteur News to publish inferences and false information about our financial standing without seeking a comment from us, as ethical journalism requires.”

Kaieteur News appears to be sticking to its story. The CEO of the GNBA Prudence Bhola-Lewis, when contacted, said the Chairman of the Board, Leslie Sobers would be the one to address any concerns.

Repeated efforts were made to contact him. Up to news time, those efforts were futile.

News Source understands that last Friday, HJ 94.1 completed payment of what was required from the GNBA at the time.  NCN completed its payments for its radio stations back in January to bring in it in full compliance.

A number of other radio stations are still to complete their payments, but the GNBA has been meeting with many of them and entering into contracts that would see the payments being done monthly rather than in one single pay off.

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