Opposition Leader clears air on access to state-owned media

July 27, 2018 in National

Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas cleared the air Wednesday in response to the opposition’s request to utilise the facilities of ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) of which the Federal Government is the sole shareholder.

Dr. Douglas refuted the remarks that ZBC after an initial meeting had written a letter accompanied with a rate sheet to him in his capacity as Leader of the Opposition.

The opposition leader disclosed that several months ago he had written a letter seeking permission to use ZBC’s facilities.

“We had response which led to a meeting that was held in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition by myself, as the leader, the then Chairman of the Party Hon. Marcella Liburd, the Chairman of the Board of ZIZ (Mr. Hanley) and the Manager (acting) Mr. Vere Galloway.

Basically in that meeting, the guys threw up their hands saying that they don’t know what else they can do. They could go no further with the matter on the request that we have made, as the matter now has to be dealt with by the minister responsible,” said Dr. Douglas to reporters after Wednesday’s St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party monthly press conference.

Dr. Douglas said he was very shocked when the news item said that ZBC responded to his request in writing and submitted with their letter a rate sheet with regards to the cost in using the facilities.

“That is not true. We received no written response with any rate sheet attached. That is either a blatant lie or it is fake news,” said the opposition leader.