Press
Release
The
Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) has learnt with utter dismay the
ludicrous accusations levied against the national broadcaster for its alleged
“persistent signal disruption” during the broadcast of the 55th Anniversary
Celebrations of the country’s independence. These accusations are not only
misleading, but undermines the very standards upon which all professional media
institutions operate. Even though some individuals reported a momentary
interruption of signals during the President’s speech, it is axiomatic that
GRTS successfully executed the entire independence coverage in a flawless
fashion, in line with our national obligations as well as provide clean and
uninterrupted feed to other media houses.
It
might interest you to know that aside from QTV, GRTS provided the same feed
from the same port to Paradise TV, STAR TV and Eye Africa TV but none of these
media houses have issues with either the quality of our broadcast feed neither
did they experience the problems alleged by QTV in the feeds they received from
us. Therefore, for QTV to use their platform to ungratefully levy such
malicious and ill-conceived technical blames on the national broadcaster with
the apparent objective of discrediting them is both outrageous and
unacceptable. GRTS hereby debunk with alacrity these accusations as ludicrously
lugubrious, malicious, baseless and indeed worrying. Such malfeasance defeats
the ideals of fair and open competition and partnership, which has always been
the bedrock of our relationship with all media houses.
GRTS
would like to place on record that since the liberalization of the broadcast
industry by the Barrow government, it has always strived to fulfill its
corporate mandate of educating and informing the citizenry through the coverage
of state and other important national events, as well as availing other media
houses including QTV unfettered access to high quality feeds without charges or
any conditionalities. For QTV to therefore disregard this cordial and fruitful
engagement on our side and decide to misrepresent the facts on just one event,
as a way of directing undue public attention to the state broadcaster, on the
pretext of earning favors on their capabilities to operate at state events
independent of the state broadcaster, is very disappointing to say the least.
QTV must understand that GRTS belongs to the Gambian people and is within every
capacity to cover events of every standard and cannot be denied its rightful
position of Must-Carry on all national events and programs.
In
view of the foregoing, GRTS calls on the authorities of QTV to withdraw their
unfounded accusations without delay and desist from practices that has the
potential of sowing discord and rivalry in our relationship. The state
broadcaster hopes that such behaviors will seize henceforth and all of us will
continue working together in peace and harmony towards the welfare of our
respective audiences in the spirit of genuine partnership. This is the only way
we can all contribute towards our individual development as well as the
development of our beloved country the Gambia.
